I ran into a sweet friend at the store a couple weeks ago and at the beginning of our conversation we both mentioned how ‘busy’ we have been this summer and still are! This turned into ‘everyone is saying that lately … what does that even mean???’ She suggested I write a blog about it… great idea Mary… so here we go!
I really had to think twice about what ‘busy’ meant to me and why I am always telling people I meet up with how ‘busy’ I am. I wondered if people generally mean it to have a good or not so good connotation when they describe themselves or their environment in the moment!
Is ‘busy’ just a ‘buzzword’ that somehow answers every question without really answering anything at all? Do we blurt it out when we are overwhelmed and don’t really want to talk about what is and isn’t going on in our lives in detail? Do we view being ‘busy’ as a condition? Or a state of mind? Is it just replacing the generic ‘I’m good’? Maybe it is trendy in 2024 to use ‘I’m busy’ rather than ‘I’m good’.?
You see… ‘busy’ is quite a relative term and like so many other expressions or phrases it is quite individual to the person and what exactly is making them feel or be ‘busy’.
My good friend Google came up with some perfect examples of some different kinds of ‘busy’ that had me nodding my head and kind of giggling because they were so accurate! So, I thought I would just copy and paste them into my blog instead of trying to re-invent the meaningful wheel of busyness!
The Many Flavors of "Busy"
The Social Busy You run into someone at the grocery store, and they ask, "How have you been?" Naturally, instead of admitting that you spent the last three weekends binge-watching a Netflix show that you don't even remember, you say, "Oh, busy!" Busy doing what? Even you don’t know. It’s the conversational equivalent of, "Please, let’s not dive too deep here."
The Work Busy At work, being “busy” is practically a status symbol. “Oh, I’ve been so busy with work” translates to: “I’m important, look at me juggling all these tasks!” It’s how we turn answering emails, attending meetings, and fighting with the printer into something that sounds a bit more heroic.
The Parent Busy Now, here’s a type of busy that deserves its own category. “I’m busy” is the perfect way for parents to sum up the chaos of raising small humans. It covers everything from making sure no one has eaten Play-Doh this week to finding that missing shoe right as you’re supposed to be out the door. It’s also a convenient way to decline any social invitation that requires you to leave the house after 7 PM.
The Pretend Busy Ah yes, the art of being busy when you're really just scrolling through your phone. Maybe you’ve told someone you’re “swamped” with work, but you’re actually watching cat videos on YouTube. No judgment here. Everyone deserves a little "pretend busy" time.
All that aside … I will try and explain what being ‘busy’ means to me at this point in my life… especially this past few summer months! If I had to describe what my ‘busy’ is in one short sentence, it would go something like this… “My canner has not left my stovetop in over 9 weeks”!
I think back to three years ago when I was ‘very very busy’ in my office job and often did well over 40 hours of work a week. I have now traded that for summers filled with 14 hour days/7 days a week that are also so very ‘busy’! The difference for me is that my current ‘busy’ is so much damn fun! So, although I am truly really quite ‘busy’ it is a ‘busy’ that is filled with positive and productive vibes. Our lifestyle change has taken a lot of work, planning and preparation but it is the most fulfilling ‘busy’ I have ever been!
This is what ‘busy’ looks like for me…
A pantry filled with dried mushrooms, canned jams, jellies, pie filling, syrup, salsa, and tomatoes. Freeze dried bone broth, raw milk whey, and various veggies and fruits that were processed in their peak time. Three freezers full of our garden veggies, berries we have picked, meat we have raised and fish that we have caught. A medicine cupboard filled with herbal tinctures and dried herbs for teas and poultices and 66lbs of honey from our honey bees!
Being outside in the garden or the forests gathering what we need to stock our cupboards for the coming months isn’t really a chore, but we have to be ‘busy’ most of the warmer months because we can’t put off picking and processing food for a later day. It seems that as soon as something has finished blooming, growing or ripening there is something else coming into its prime in the garden or the neighboring forests, so the ‘busy’ cycle keeps going and there isn’t much ‘down time’.
I have been all the above-mentioned flavours of ‘busy’ at some point during my lifetime but I can truly say that right now has been the most rewarding flavour I have tasted so far and one that I have not seen described on any ‘busy’ list on the interwebs!
‘Busy’ can look different for everyone – for some it is juggling work, family and some self-care; for others it could be managing their vegetable garden and having to spend 2 hours most days remembering where they put something yesterday! A whirlwind of small tasks that fill up your day leaves you wondering where the time went which often translates into “wow – I was ‘busy’ today!”
Life is full, messy, fun and overwhelming at times and in a world that seems to glorify busyness, sometimes the best way to be busy is to do nothing at all!’
Much love
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