Keeping it real

This week, I've been trying to pay attention to how I go from being (mostly) fulfilled and contented (focused on God) to being not-at-ease and unsatisfied (not focused on God). Or, in other words, how I get back to normal after Easter, or some other major Catholic event like World Youth Day, or a retreat.

I go from being everything I do, everyone I see, every conversation I have being connected to the Event one day, to being completely disconnected from it the next day (in that nothing I do, no one I see and no conversation I have are about the Event at all). I go from being busy and focused, to doing nothing and having no focus.

So I catch up on all the things I couldn't do, like the washing, sleeping, talking to the family, reading emails etc.. I find I'm a little bored, so I start to 'do' things. Before I know where I am I acquire habits, like watching Doctor Who and Question Time and reading the Guardian and Ecologist.

I do these things for the sake of doing something. They are interesting, socially acceptable to do, sometimes they impact my life - but they do not give my life and my actions meaning. They fill time.

But they quickly seem to become 'important' and 'essential' and crowd out the truly important and essential things - like prayer and God.

So the question is, how to hold on to the really important stuff and function in a world where everyone else pretends like the really important stuff doesn't exist?