Living Without A Cushion

Today's speed of life leaves us with very little cushion. Many people feel overloaded! Most Americans live without any space ; No Margin for error or troubleshooting or just slowing down on purpose. Our days are packed so full of activity that any unexpected event can throw us into a frazzled wreck. Not only do we live with little or no cushion concerning our time and schedule but our finances mirror this predicament. An unexpected dentist visit or auto repair can have a ripple effect through our bills for several months. I thought that today's tech. advances were supposed to give us more time for the truly more meaningful things such as family and relationships. It seems to me that many people are more disconnected and disengaged with their loved ones than in previous generations. King Solomon said that he would rather have one handful with quietness than two handfuls with travail and vexation of spirit. Solomon learned that He could have anything; but he couldn't have everything.
How does adding a little "quietness" to your life sound?
I read a great article by the late Howard McClusky. A professor from the University of Michigan. McClusky said that there are two key factors in understanding your own margin or cushion. He defined margin as the space between you and your limits.
The first factor is Load: There are two parts to this LOAD: External Load; responsibilities, tasks, career, family and so on. The second part is an Internal Load; Personal ambition, goals, self expectation. The second factor is Power: The ability to carry your load. When determining ones power you must consider things like your physical, social(support from others), mental, economic, skills, and spiritual well being. Cushion is created when you have a little more power than you need to carry your normal load. Then the unexpected moments can be taken in stride in stead of setting off a domino effect of huffing and puffing, sighing and stress.
For those who need a little cushion the objective is to reduce your load or increase your power; or a little of both. The weakness to this formula of C=L/P (Cushion equals Load over Power) is that there are no set values. Every one's values will be different. What one person considers a heavy task may not be heavy to another and what one person draws great strength from may not be so valuable to another. So everyone has to assign value to their own loads and their own power.
My hope is that this post would cause us to take a few moments to reevaluate the speed and meaningfulness of our own lives and determine whether or not we have enough cushion for the moments when we hit an unexpected bump or two. Does the lack of cushion cause us to get stressed and distracted from the more important things in our lives?

May your cushions be enlarged!

Randall