Re-center
When I am using my GPS in the car, I sometimes scroll out to see a larger view or swipe over to see something interesting to the right or left of my main route. Ranging around and seeing the surrounding areas can be interesting, but distracting. If I am not looking at the main screen when a crucial turn comes up, I can miss it and then have to figure out or accept an alternative route. Early GPSs voice narrators used to say “recalculating” to signal that the driver had made a mistake; now the driver is not “scolded” in that way and the GPS simply says, “Do a U turn.” The RE-CENTER button reminds me that I have a plan and need to return to it.
While ranging off the beaten path is fun and good for contextualizing and perspective, I need to know when to pull myself back to focus. I experience “ideaphoria” (meaning a flow of many ideas) but not focused “follow through” to finish the one main thing.
Many times, I have gone into a library (brick-and-mortar or virtual) to do research for a paper, but spent my whole allotted time enjoying a wide variety of “delicious” books but exiting no closer to finishing my specific assignment or meeting my deadline. This behavior doesn’t quite seem like “lazy procrastination” because I am working hard, but it’s just generally working not specifically focusing.
To RE-CENTER my heart on good things or my mind on specific goals, I like Psalm 51:10, “Create in me a clean heart, O Lord, and renew a right spirit within me” (NIV). To me, “right” means properly aligned and focused, centered and RE-centered on a good path.
6/19/2021
Susan Olmstead Wang 