Saturday, February 19, 2011

Making Stuff Disappear

After wrestling with months of persistent tech issues on my previous computer, I got a new laptop last year.  It has Windows 7.  There are things about Win7 that I don't like, some that I am learning to appreciate, and one that I have loved almost since the beginning.

That one favorite thing?  Making stuff disappear.  Often I put files on the desktop for current projects.  "Current" is relative, of course, so sometimes the desktop starts looking cluttered, visually noisy.  It's hard to think with too much noise, and bothersome -- nagging, even -- to see constant reminders of various projects that are not finished.


One day, when this operating system was still very new to me, all my icons suddenly disappeared.  I panicked briefly -- after all, that space contains much of my current work -- then searched and found the files were still there, just not visible in their usual cluttered space.  A bit of research revealed that double-clicking on the desktop toggles their visibility.  What a great feature!


Now when it is time to step away awhile from the various tasks and rest instead, I smile and make them disappear, just for awhile.

"There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under heaven..."
(Ecclesiastes 3:1)

I am learning to rest, and to respect and appreciate that rest is a gift from God.  Unexpectedly, Win7 has offered a lovely reminder to set things aside, to make the tasks invisible for awhile and simply be.