In The Now

I've had this quote posted next to my computer for a week or so as a reminder to be present.

It's been difficult - the world I live in pretty much demands multitasking & forecasting, to the point that when I focus on only what's at hand, all the other things waiting in the wings start waving their arms wildly, trying to get my attention. There are times when ignoring them all can be just as exhausting as trying to deal with them all.

Perhaps that's one of the reasons I like my solitary activities, and get quite zealous when someone tries to cajole me into spending my leisure time on something that mimicks my work time. There are a lot of folks out there who won't take no for an answer, who have no issue with demanding explication, and even worse, feel free to judge and weigh in with their opinions if I do provide one. For the most part I've manged to stay polite - opting for a simple "No, that doesn't fit into my plans right now."

Recently someone got rather confrontational, (I believe the exact phrase was "what have you got going on that's so important that you can't do this?") and I was so shocked I just stood and stared. It was tough to tell whether they were saying it in jest or not - it didn't come across like they were joking - and the expectant silence afterwards indicated that they really were expecting me to explain.

How to get out of that gracefully? I don't think I managed it well - I gave myself time by taking a sip of my tea, tilted my head and said "I've got too much going on, what with family and all."

So - your turn - how would you handle such a situation?