I Walk In Still Carrying the Day

Most days I walk into the house still in the last thing I was doing. A problem I didn't finish. A message sitting unanswered. The day is supposed to be over. I'm still in it.

The house is already in motion. I walk into the middle of it still turning the last thing over.

I used to treat that as coming down from it. Needing a minute. The house would wait.

That's not needing a minute. That's me never actually arriving.

Still In The Last Thing

The last thing is real. Work that didn't wrap cleanly. Something I'm still turning over. I'm not going to pretend I can drop a whole day the second the door shuts.

What I skip is the landing. I come through the door and I keep living in the hours I just left. I'm in the house. I'm not in the room.

I think I do it because the unfinished thing feels more urgent than the people standing in front of me. If I keep it running in my head, maybe I won't lose the thread. If I put it down, I have to admit this part of the day counts too, and I keep missing it.

The work isn't the problem. Some days are heavy. Walking in like I already put it down, when I didn't, is. I walk in already gone. Not gone from the house. Gone from the people who needed me in it.

Worried About Many Things

Martha was in her house, doing real work, carrying more than one thing. The Lord didn't tell her the work was fake. He named what it was doing to her.

But the Lord answered her, "Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her." Luke 10:41-42

Anxious and troubled about many things.

I know that sentence. I walk in already in it. The many things don't even have to be in the room. They just have to still have me.

Mary wasn't ignoring the house. She was in the room she was actually in. I walk into my house and stay in a room I already left.

If you walk into your house still carrying the day you just left, Reflect is free to try for 7 days. It won't finish the unfinished thing. It'll give you a place to put it down before the people in front of you have to compete with it.

The Minutes After The Door

I still come through that door carrying more than I want to. I'm trying to put the day down before I touch the handle. I still walk in with it.

The door isn't the arrival. I keep treating it like it is.

Try Reflect free for 7 days: reflect.forgedagents.io/welcome

Trent Jones is the author of the Forged Agents blog and builder of "Reflect", a daily reflection companion for living in the present, in peace, with joy.