It gets busier and busier at Heaven Headquarters — certainly at this branch! Presently there is the Argentinian branch as well which in many ways, is the real Heaven Headquarters!  No, I forgot for a moment that the real headquarters is indeed in Heaven.

The questions I have to ask myself concern my use of this non-existent time.

Here is how my mornings go now:

I faithfully do my personal writing to God every morning. I do this first. It takes no more than fifteen minutes, often much less.

Then I go to the Heavenletter that is next in line to send to Annette, the archivist.  This is  a Heavenletter written down weeks ago, and now I go over it for typos and to give it a title if it doesn’t already have one before I send it to Annette who takes care of the technical things necessary to prepare it for mailing out. (Since Annette has been doing this, you may have noticed that the dates and numbers of Heavenletters are always right!)  My getting the Heavenletter ready takes probably five minutes, maybe longer when it is a Heavenletter that I can’t seem to find a title for that I feel really good with.

Then I go to the Heavenletter that is to be written today.  Writing down what I hear takes about half an hour, give or take.

All in all, so far we’re talking only about one hour.

Then there is writing down an entry for this blog. Sometimes I have several written ahead. I have long learned that when an idea for the blog pops into my head, I had better write it down right then, or I lose the idea. Usually, writing for the blog is quick and easy.

Once in a while there’s an entry that really takes time. It’s probably fair to say that, overall on an average of forty-five minutes or an hour a day goes into blogwriting and setting it up on Word Press gaking it ready to go. Nothing hard about getting it ready to go, but I have to pay attention. I have to remember to put the break in the page where you press Continue. I have to remember to write a slug which is something for the search engines.  I have to remember to check off the categories (requires thinking.) I have to be sure I gave it a title, and that’s it. Heaven Admin puts the photos in, or it would take me much longer.

I also check in on the Heavenletter Spiritual Community Forum. I approve the comments that are waiting for approval and delete the spam. I can’t resist responding to some of the comments. And this is the same for the blog as well. I check in on the blog and forum many times through the day.

There are some comments that I absolutely must respond to. When someone offers their services to Heavenletters, for example.

Recently Heaven Admin posted about getting a report of Heavenletters ready for Wikipedia. This is something to work on. http://www.heavenletters.org/collaboration-from-heavenreaders-for-a-wikipedia-entry-for-heavenletters-and-godwriting-12305.html

I haven’t counted in the time given to personal questions to God that come in. I like to do those first thing in the morning, but questions don’t come in every day.

And I’m also not counting getting Heaven News ready to go. I add bits and pieces of Heaven News every day, and then, closer to the time it needs to be made ready, I spend whole days. I think it’s getting the details straight that takes so much time.

So, well, generally for the early morning work, we’re talking about an average of two or two and a half hours. This is the main inviolable work of every day seven days a week.

Sometimes I wake up very early.  It is not unusual that by 5 a.m. I’m done with the essentials for Heavenletters!

I used to run to emails before the essentials, but, you know, email has a different kind of energy. Godwriting and all are much more peaceful. I used to have to discipline myself to not go to emails first because I was so eager to find out what’s going on — like the way some people read the newspaper.

Now I’m perfectly happy to do all the Godwriting and blog stuff first and let email wait. It’s like — well, Godwriting has that kind of niceness that staying in bed under the covers longer in the morning has when you just want to stay there.

When the basics are finished, then I move into the email frenzy.

If it were not for emails, I might actually be a serene person!

But with the emails the relative world streams in full-force,  and then there are things to deal with. Often 74 emails first thing,  two-thirds of which go into delete. That leaves about 25 to respond to in some way. And new messages rush in every minute of the day one after the other, as fast as can be, more and more all through the day.

I am reminded of The Walrus and the Carpenter by Lewis Carroll. Substitute Emails for Oysters:

Four other Oysters followed them,
And yet another four;
And thick and fast they came at last,
And more, and more, and more–
All hopping through the frothy waves,
And scrambling to the shore.

Some emails absolutely have to be responded to, and some responses take a lot of thought and time. Sometimes I have to say no to someone. Some are forwards that I simply have to delete, or I wouldn’t get anything done. Sometimes there are delightful emails that seem to come out of nowhere, like a donation from someone who doesn’t even subscribe! There is correspondence with publishers, for example. Emails back and forth with Heaven Admin. Some emails are quick and easy to respond to, of course. Many of my responses are asking good people to please post. I love to answer emails, but when they pile up and other matters need to be taken care, I am in a spot, and it is myself I really have to deal with.

The forum and blog have been great lifesavers. Many Heavenreaders post on the forum and blog instead of emailing. And then many of the people who post are like staff. They take care of everyone and move things along, and I can just read the posts in awe and not do anything.

With every success, there is more to do.  As there is more and more to do, I have to start asking myself hard questions like: Can I even keep up with answering all the emails that really do require an answer? Do I have to change my thinking about what is essential and what can no longer be considered essential? How influenced am I because of what I like to do rather than what’s essential?

So far I haven’t gotten very far. But, at least, I’ve come as far as to know I have to figure something out.