Confessions of a Junkie

Last updated on: April 6, 2011 at 10:52 pm by Mary Alice

Confessions of a Junkie 2011-04-06T22:52:54-06:00 Mary Alice

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Okay, y’all, I think I’m addicted to the telephone. It started back when I was a teen, when I would hide away in my tiny bedroom and gab for hours and hours with friends, those very friends I had just spent the entire day in school gabbing with. Later on, I would sneak late night conversations with my boyfriend up in Maine, sometimes we would talk almost all night.

My friends know that I pick up, so if they have a minor crisis in their lives, they call me. I, too, have a short list of friends I know I can always call. When I see the number on the caller ID, I sense that the call will last more than a few minutes, but I think guiltily of the times they have been there for me, and I pick up.

But it doesn’t stop there. These days, whenever the telephone rings it is a welcome interruption to what I should really be doing, and while I half know that I should let it go, I almost always pick up. I answer to telemarketers, take surveys on politics and solar energy, politely decline donations to the policeman’s retirement funds, and take the time to explain to the mortgage callers that I am not the person in charge of the financial decisions.

What happens in the meantime? My kids drift away from their lessons, overflow the bathtub, ask to play in the backyard, or sit and pout. I have promised them, the people I love the most, over and over again, that I will stop, but they know by now that I don’t really mean it.

I think that today my heart hit rock bottom. I was on the phone earlier today, distracting another mother from her family, while we both should have been getting dinner ready, and my middle son came to show me something from a children’s magazine. I gestured him away, with a look that implied the rudeness of the interruption. Just now, at his school desk, I found the project he had been trying to show me. It was an intricate cutting work to make a comic movie wheel, really a neat science project, and something that he would not have been able to do just a few months ago. He had done all the work to cut out the notched wheel, and he needed my help to find a push pin to finish the project. He also deserved my enthusiastic response to his effort and interest. This is a child who is starting to grow up, right under my nose, but I am too busy with other people to view him as anything other than an interruption.

Enough is enough. Tomorrow morning, I am turning off the ringers. If it is an emergency, it will have to wait, because the only people who really depend on me are the six who will be within my walls, and I need to be there for them, really and truly present, not just in the building. I am available for girls nights out on the third Wednesday of each month, let’s talk in person. If we have business to do, please send an email.

I know that this is all sort of silly, but please say a prayer for me, for some self control in this area. If the phone doesn’t ring for a few hours, I am likely to get itchy to call someone, but I am going to try to do both of us the favor of just getting through the moment. I think, like many other bad habits, this is one that can be broken, with effort, in a surprisingly short amount of time. Isn’t that one of the beauties of Lent, that God gives us the grace to see the things that we are abusing, that we are too attached to?

This is really an extension of my Lenten goal of loving, because I am not truly available to the people I am primarily here to love and serve when I am on the phone.

Motherhood and Parenting

Previous Post

April 6, 2011

Check your own shoes, first!

Next Post

April 8, 2011 Body Parts

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Builders' Favorite Posts Children Education & Homeschool Food and Nutrition Health Home Organization Inside Our Inbox Keeping It Real Liturgical Seasons Marriage Miscellaneous Motherhood and Parenting Nature and the Environment NFP and Fertility Politics and Current Events Pregnancy Recipes Spiritual Life The Catholic Church Thoughts for Thursday Uncategorized

Select a Month April 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

How many years from Abraham to Jesus?

Select your answer to see how you score.

1000 years 2000 years 1500 years 2500 years