A dictionary definition of ‘urgent’ is this: ‘requiring immediate action or attention’. Seemingly, it began life as an adjective to describe whatever it added importance to, and still it is used as such. However, it feels to me that it has also taken on attributes of being more noun-like (which I guess it is anyway when used as ‘urgency’). It (the urgent) seems to have morphed into a thing of substance somehow (at least in the eyes of so many of our species). It is as if it has become a bodyless presence that permeates and seeps into much of our lives. How did it become like that? What drove Urgency (now personified) to gain power over us in our day to day lives? Today, it seems weird to me that he (Urgency) managed it so effectively and convincingly.
Not for one moment would I deny that I have been the biggest slave to Urgency in my many (non-reincarnated) previous lives (which we could call ‘life seasons’, I guess). Indeed, he remains partly present even now. However, in the past, I’d work through lists of tasks, all ordered and re-ordered in terms of their current (and (at the time) ever shifting) prioritisations, and I (in my deluded state) believed all of them to be fully and importantly urgent. They all mattered and there were very good and justifiable reasons why each task needed to be achieved, and within the shortest time frame possible. The people tasks were always of a higher priority than the paperwork tasks, of course, but even so, a sense of urgency threaded through every single intended action or plan.
Reflecting on that now, I also allowed Urgent to be more than an adjective of perceived power, or a noun of substance. It became a kind of potential evidence to anyone outside of me (and to me directly too) that the tasks I engaged in were important, had meaning and mattered. Maybe some of them did and maybe other things, not so much, but that is largely irrelevant here. I guess in my living and breathing life, I had created Urgency as justification of importance and value. Interesting, Dawn (she says to herself, in hindsight).
I can easily recall the weighty permanent presence of Urgency as it tugged, pulled and pushed me in various directions and all while my inner girl would have other steering forces active and fighting to be heard. I would probably go as far as to say that I silenced the more sensible and measured internal directors (yes, I have many living inside me. Don’t you?) in favour of allowing Urgent to drive and direct my route and my use of time. I gave him significant space to breath and flex his metaphorical muscles.
The more I think on it, I wonder if there is less that is (in the truest sense) Urgent in our wider world as well as within our individual worlds. And I am wondering about my own need to further lessen his power. Maybe I’ll begin with the removal of the previously instated personification of him as a being.
I wonder if many of us humans allow the invasion of urgency as a way of making it seem that we are needed and therefore in some way valuable. I wonder if some press their urgent tasks onto others as another level of perceived power over people and activity. I wonder if our propensity to give into urgency and to deliver the service required at speed can then become further suggestive evidence that someone or something outside of ourselves values what we do.
I wonder whether we sometimes confuse the perceived value in the services we provide and the urgent tasks we must achieve as proof of worth in who and how and what we are. Maybe that outlook (conscious or not) shifts dependent on what is on our to do list, who is pressuring us or if Time is also playing his part.
As ever, there is not a definitive conclusion to round us off tidily at the end. We’ve met, right (via my words, anyway)? I’m not really one for fixed conclusions and nicely structured answers concerning matters woven in and around life. I’m not sure they really exist as final destinations. So, with that in mind, I think I’ll pause on this now. Anyway, I’m guessing you may well have urgent things to attend to. Go well. Thanks for popping by. For my own part, I need to rush off to see if my article reader approves this for publication on the site, which is of course, urgent. 🤦🏻♀️
I realise we each make our own choices, and with that in mind, I have an update to share. It’s honestly nicer without him hanging about as an ever-present, controlling companion. Urgency used to fuel me and seemed to give me purpose and worth and I valued him. However, it is my suspicion that Urgency is deceptive and will eventually show his true colours. He still makes many appearances but sometimes I can pop him in his box for a bit and get some respite.
When he’s elsewhere, including in his box, I have noticed that I see things I didn’t really see before. Weird, maybe…but also true.
