HOW WE TRAVEL FROM TASK TO TASK?

In SW Florida, we woke up to a delightfully refreshing 70 degrees, and to me, the world felt alive and vibrant. Even the birds seemed happy.

The feeling in the air reminded me of a day twenty years ago, when my son was six, when we still lived as a family with his dad; when we were having a Norman Rockwell morning. Dad was working on the lawn. I was working in the house. All of the windows were open and a breeze was blowing life through the window.

I heard Dad ask Jack, our son, who was playing in the yard under the guise of "helping," if he would go into the house and bring out a rake.

Time passed. Dad came to the window and shouted in, "Have you seen Jack? He went in to get a rake and its been twenty minutes." I went to check.

I opened the garage door and there in the garage was this four foot kid, wearing flippers, a scuba mask and the air hose pointing toward the sky, dribbling a basketball. Hmmm. So I said, "Jack.....what are you doing?"

And he looked at me, with his mask distorting his lips to give him frog-like features, and calmly said, "I am looking for the rake."

How many of us go from task to task and stay on task? How many enjoy the journey along the way?
My own father was a dreadful companion on any trip to a museum or art institute. Maybe it was his military background, maybe he just always went from task to task without enjoying the journey in the middle. But his goal upon entry was to exit. And we, as children, would zip along, scurrying to keep up, and missing the "good stuff" along the way.

I admit, work would never be completed if everyone approached tasks like my son Jack, who in this regard, clearly takes after his mother. But I can assure you that the tasks do wait and the journey is truly delightful.