Snow Daze

All these snow days are prompting me to revisit an earlier post. What do you do when nature throws you for a loop?

I really didn’t mind staying home for a couple of days last week and again today (Monday) because of weather. But I didn’t get as much done as I thought I would.

Part of that was because Kathy and I, armed with snowblower and shovels, spent a couple of hours last Wednesday digging 30” of snow out of the driveway. But my lack of productivity during a couple of enforced days at home had more to do with my personality.

I am the kind of person who thrives on a regular schedule. I want to be the one to introduce any variations, thank you very much. I prefer to do my studying in the mornings, calling in the afternoons, meetings in the evening. And for a long time that worked well for me.

Since moving to Vail/Westside, however, I’ve had to accept a lot more uncertainty in my “schedule,” and not just because of snowstorms. Traveling between several communities, keeping track of the doings of two congregations, and keeping up with two denominations has meant that I can’t always organize my days and weeks the way I would like.

So I’m working on flexibility. I really can study at other times than morning, and I really can call at other times than afternoon. Steven Covey, author of Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, recommends scheduling yourself tightly at the beginning of your week and allowing your schedule to get “softer” toward the end of the week to leave room for things (like blizzards) that crop up unexpectedly.

That works pretty well. But it’s more than scheduling. It’s also an attitude adjustment. Thomas a Kempis wrote, Nam homo proponit, sed Deus disponit, usually translated as “man proposes, God disposes,” or “man plans, but God arranges.” (I have been searching a long time for a non-gender-specific way to say that and haven’t found one) The point is that we have limited control over our lives. God may be bringing something into my life or yours that we didn’t plan for—and that’s a good thing.