Deferred Decisions

Deferred Decisions

"Do not go Monday, be still on Tuesday,
Wednesday's a bad day, Thursday is slow,
Friday's unlucky, Saturday's grudging.
So give up your troublesome travel tomorrow!"
    ___Scots Gaelic song (trans. CM)

   This song is sung to beguile the welcome guest,
to delay her departure and cause her to stay longer. Sometimes, though we cannot be so self-indulgent; we need to take incisive action rather than defer it.
    Procrastination is subtle and invasive self-persuasion that second-guesses all avenues of possibility as they present themselves. It is always easier to leave a difficult decision to the next day, to put off reading and signing a complex document until a later date, to ignore a request until the time is more convenient and our mood more amenable. The prince of procrastination is Shakespeare's Hamlet, who virtually worries himself into mental illness. When deferred actions are deferred too long, the fear around their performance becomes horrifically amplified.
    When we are stuck in procrastination, we need 'a rabbit bolter' - something that flushes realizations out of their deep hiding places up to the surface of our attention. This bolter may involve taking a day off work and away from the family, going into nature or to a place of some peacefulness, without stimulus and interference from any outside source so that our minds can cease their squirrel-cage contortions and come to rest in focused attention upon how we must act. In our prayers and in the companionship of our spiritual allies, we can ask for help, clarity, and strength to make the right decisions and to defer them no longer.

"Choose one current predicament and meditate upon possible solutions."
[From: The Celtic Spirit by Caitlin Matthews]