[The following excerpt is an edited, greatly shortened version of an interview by Cecilia Skidmore, MFA; LPC, host of Open-Mind, Michigan Public Radio (WGVU, 1480 AM/850 FM in Grand Rapids, Mich.]

C.S. Having read all your books, and there are a number of them, and having seen the packet of information about you that your firm sent, and reviewing all the things you're accomplishing, it doesn't seem to fit with the notions of "simple living" or "contemplation" about which you write. Can you explain?

M.S. Well, that is the surprising thing, the confounding thing, really, and I've tried to clarify it throughout my Sometimes, Enough is Enough: namely, when we have rightly ordered our life, and know what we're about, then it is easy to say no to the periphery of temptations -- the faxes, phone calls, e-mails, committee meetings, social engagements that can tend to squeeze us into tight boxes of pressure. Instead, we begin to turn with a shining focus, a light-filled focus, to the things that matter.

Whether it's family, or art, or business or community involvement or writing books, a rightly ordered life lets us achieve so much. That's what I have discovered, and keep discovering more of each day. That's why someone like Thomas Merton could work on 3 books at once, which reputedly he did, or why someone else, a sculptor let's say, can work from dawn to dusk nonstop and seem, to us who fragment our time, so heroic an achiever.

C.S. That has go to be a huge, daunting task. One of the exercises I've asked people to tackle in the various classes I've taught over the years, is to simply do one thing at a time. And they immediately get frantic -- they can't possibly imagine doing one thing at a time and surviving.

M.S. That's right. [That's my observation, too.] And today's work environment uses a term called 'multitasking,' where people are frequently evaluated on how well they can juggle lots of things at one time. Now, juggling is important, but...

One has to be able to hold one's focus no matter what -- but [let's not forget] that we are always responsible for executing one or two priorities before all else -- that might be how people fare under our [parenting or supervisory] watch; it might be accounting or paying bills.... One simply has to be capable of putting the full force of one's attention on one thing at a time. Then move to the next task. Do that well. Then turn to the next thing, handle that properly. And so on. that doesn't mean you're neglecting other things. It means for that moment, like a surgeon who's repairing your kidney, or appendix, and [keeping his or her mind on that job exclusively, so that you don't end up with a sponge in your gut] you're handling one thing well, and not worrying about your golf game.

C.S. Hmmm -- And what do you do with the anxiety that you feel [i.e., while focusing on one thing, while other things are pressing in?]

M.S. Well, that anxiety is born of a wrong relationship with ourselves.... [The unhealthy connection that can't say no, can't say, "Let me do this first, then I'll be right with you," Or, "I'm over-committed right now." Or, patiently turn off and carefully put down the hot iron, while attending to the neighbor at the door.... The unhealthy connection is what makes us long to throw the iron at the interruption!]

Of course, I have a spiritual definition of that "right relationship." It [establishes peace] in the interior landscape -- and that stops our fear. That relationship is the antidote to nameless fears, anxiety -- the sense that those around us -- our constituents or family, the people we're wanting to serve -- always need a little bit more of us. Or, that we're [fragmented], not really "all there."

Or, that we're getting busier and busier and can't keep up with what's wanted of us. All these fears that nibble away at our focus, gradually begin to get managed -- to feel manageable, once we rightly order our life and our relationship to the inner landscape.

Incrementally, we spontaneously locate ways of putting our anxieties to rest. That doesn't happen all at once; just slowly we realize we've put our life under God's Hand -- or under our own control, depending on your point of view.

But first things first. (a) That doesn't happen automatically. [I've never suggested a quick-fix] and (b) It does require discipline and that's why (c) I'm strong on the contemplative message of my books.

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