Busy Little Bees

How many times recently have you had this exchange:

"How are you?" someone asks.
"Busy!" you reply.

I know, I know. I'm right there with you saying "busy busy" all the time.

For some reason responding "busy" when I am asked bugs me. Yes I am busy and saying that out loud is correct. But who is not busy? Have you ever asked someone the token "how are you?" and gotten "I am so relaxed. I have all the time in the world and right now I"m enjoying the fact that I get to have a sweet conversation with a friend like you. In fact, I wasn't even sure what I was going to do until you walked up to talk to me."

Let's face it, we're all busy -- but is that all we have to say to each other? We certainly can find more to talk about other than how jam packed our lives are, filled with stuff to do, places to go and e-mails to check that we barely have time for a meaningful conversation.

Busy has become our code word that declares "I am valued, I am needed, I have lots to accomplish." Who doesn't want to feel valuable, important, on a mission in life? I know I do, but my goal is to find a way to say it without saying the "b" word.

The challenge is that when people ask you how you are, they really don't want to know. They want to know sort of, but in a hurry up, let me get to what I want, get on with it sort of intention.

So to be efficient but real, I put together a list of potential responses to the "how are you?" question:

How are you?

The Pollyanna
"I'm excellent and hoping you are too!"

The Encourager
"I'm well and you are looking well yourself."

The Ray of Sunshine
"I'm struggling today, but I'm on the upward swing."

The Truth
"I had a horrible night's sleep, but looking forward to a nap later."

The Honest
"I'm getting over a cold and am in need of some soup, do you have any?"

If you can't think of something good to say, I think a "I'm great" with a smile will always do. Because even if you are struggling inside, the very fact that you said "I'm great" out loud fools you into thinking you can find a way back to it. I hope you will try to be a bit more creative than "busy" when someone asks how you are. It certainly would make more life more interesting for everyone involved.