Tick Tock - Time to think about time

Clock is based on a painting by Salvadore Dali

 Salvadore Dali clocks and melting clocks.

"Tomorrow's just your future yesterday" Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson theme song






This thought has been on my mind for awhile now. However, I hate to mention time because as a procrastinator.....there never seems to be enough of it. It is frustrating because it makes me realize I do not always use my time effectively.

I used to say I would "make" time to do something. Who am I kidding? We can't "make" time. We all have the same 168 hours/week limit. 8,760 hours (525,600 minutes) in a year. That sounds like so many. Then you factor in sleep, eating, everyday stuff and those hours and years just seem to dwindle.

I finally realize I need to "take" time to do the important things...even the mundane, boring things I don't necessarily enjoy doing. I think I am going to start thinking of time like money $$cha ching. It is something that needs to be budgeted. This gives a whole new meaning to "spending time" with someone. ;) However, there is one big difference between time and money. We can earn more money. We cannot earn more time. Time is valuable. I need to learn to spend it more wisely.

I made an Excel sheet with 168 boxes: 1 for each hour of the day. I would have broken it down into smaller chunks of time, but I wanted to have room to write. On a good week, I remember to keep track. At the end of the week, I review. I try to set schedules for things I have to do every week (prayer group, family time,  refill pill boxes, trash, dishes, laundry, etc) Sometimes I do better than others. Sometimes I suffer from calendar creep. Those little boxes just keep filling up with events and appointments and if I'm not careful....there is something in every box of the week.

I think one of my biggest reasons for writing this now is that I want to get to the end of my life with no regrets. No I wish I would haves. When I was a kid, it seemed like I had forever to wait until the "big" birthdays: 10 - double digits, 13 - teenager, 16 - license and drive, 18 - adult (uh, yeah), 29 - uh oh almost 30, 20's and 30's - get married and have kids, 40's - seeing the top of "the hill".....we all know what comes next. What the end will be. We may not know how, but we know how life ends up.

While looking for quotes, I was thinking Time is the great equalizer. The one that kept popping up though was Death is the great equalizer. Both are right.

Ecclesiastes 3 (NLT)

A Time for Everything

3 For everything there is a season,
    a time for every activity under heaven.
² A time to be born and a time to die.
    A time to plant and a time to harvest.
³ A time to kill and a time to heal.
    A time to tear down and a time to build up.
⁴ A time to cry and a time to laugh.
    A time to grieve and a time to dance.
⁵ A time to scatter stones and a time to gather stones.
    A time to embrace and a time to turn away.
⁶ A time to search and a time to quit searching.
    A time to keep and a time to throw away.
⁷ A time to tear and a time to mend.
    A time to be quiet and a time to speak.
⁸ A time to love and a time to hate.
    A time for war and a time for peace.

⁹ What do people really get for all their hard work? ¹⁰ I have seen the burden God has placed on us all. ¹¹ Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end. ¹² So I concluded there is nothing better than to be happy and enjoy ourselves as long as we can. ¹³ And people should eat and drink and enjoy the fruits of their labor, for these are gifts from God.

Season of Love - Rent

English writer and novelist Arnold Bennet (1867-1931): “Time is the inexplicable raw material of everything. With it, all is possible; without it, nothing. The supply of time is truly a daily miracle; an affair genuinely astonishing when one examines it.  You wake up in the morning with your purse magically filled up with 24 hours of the unmanufactured tissue of the universe of your life!  It is yours.  It is the most precious of possessions.  No one can take it from you.  It cannot be stolen. And no one receives either more or less than you receive.  In the realm of time there is no aristocracy of wealth, and no aristocracy of intellect.  Genius is never rewarded by even an extra hour or a day.  And there is no punishment.  Waste your infinitely precious commodity as much as you will, and the supply will never be withheld from you.  Moreover, you cannot draw on the future and it’s impossible to get into debt! You can only waste the passing moment.  You cannot waste tomorrow; it is kept for you.  You cannot waste the next hour; it is kept for you.  I have said the affair was a miracle.  Is it not?  You have to live on this 24 hours of daily time.  Out of it you have to spend health, pleasure, money, content, respect, and the evolution of your immortal soul.  Its right use and its most effective use, is a matter of the highest urgency and of the most thrilling actuality.  It all depends on you!  Your happiness, the elusive prize that you are all clutching for, my friends, depends on your use of time.”

Summer - Full speed ahead

School officially ended today for this year. Summer days will turn into summer weeks and months. So far, our calendar is mostly empty....which is not all bad.  However, I have a habit of calendar creep....slowly filling in squares with things we need to do....or should be doing....or what has not gotten done yet.  I watch the days slip away it seems slowly, hour by hour.  But isn't that how the school year went by?

Since I unfortunately packrat too much stuff especially paper, I will sometimes find my "to do" lists of days gone by. What is most disheartening is when I find that weeks, months or even years have gone by...and the "to do" remains undone. sob.

How will this summer be any different than last summer....or the school year leading up until now? I don't know if I have an answer for that yet. I guess I'm putting it in writing to myself that if I don't change something time will fly by and another school year will be ready to start.  I really do not want to find a "to do" list with a June 2011 date and find out that it is STILL not done.

I guess for now, I will take one day or even half day or hour at a time. I will make my list shorter so that I actually can feel like I accomplished something worthwhile. I will grab those minutes of time that I will never get back with our kids. If that means something won't get checked off the list that day? So be it.

Time marches on and sometimes I feel like I'm being trampled. I can try and control some of my time so I do not feel like my time (or lack of) is controlling me. A few minutes of planning goes a long way. In the meantime, I will remember the verse about not worrying about tomorrow. I will take care of what I can do today and be happy with what I have accomplished OR happy with what I got to do instead.

Matthew 6:34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 (NIV)
A Time for Everything 

¹ There is a time for everything,
   and a season for every activity under the heavens:

 ² a time to be born and a time to die,
   a time to plant and a time to uproot,
 ³ a time to kill and a time to heal,
   a time to tear down and a time to build,
 ⁴ a time to weep and a time to laugh,
   a time to mourn and a time to dance,
 ⁵ a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
   a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
 ⁶ a time to search and a time to give up,
   a time to keep and a time to throw away,
 ⁷ a time to tear and a time to mend,
   a time to be silent and a time to speak,
 ⁸ a time to love and a time to hate,
   a time for war and a time for peace.

Letting Go......

I've been thinking lately about letting go and how hard that is. Especially when we are not ready, willing or able to let go of whatever it is we are holding on to so tightly. Sometimes we want to let go....but on our time line and expanding our comfort zone ever so slowly (or so it seems!). Sometimes it becomes obvious that it is time (or past time) to let go.

What makes it so difficult to let go? Many times it is fear. We become familiar with a situation and the people in it and sometimes it seems easier to stay...even if it is not working out for anyone.

When it became very obvious that I was supposed to leave my job and be at home, I dealt with fear of the unknown. The job was a good-paying one with good benefits. Without knowing the situation, it would be easy to say just stay and make it work. It got to the point of realizing no matter how hard I tried, it was time to let go and move on. For the most part, that decision has been the right one.

Part of the fear issue is not always seeing the whole picture and how it will turn out. Almost like putting a really hard puzzle together....without the benefit of the picture on the box.

Letting go can be as easy as having someone else be in charge of the remote control when they really want it. Letting go might not be your decision as layoffs happen at your job. Letting go can be as difficult as helping someone make a decision to no longer receive treatment that will ultimately end a life.

When we finally do let go though? God is there waiting to help move us on to where He wants us to go next. He has the full picture on the box of the puzzle of our lives. Letting go requires trust that we are always in God's view and His plan is to help us find the purpose we're here for.

Is there something or someone you've been holding on a little too tightly? Are you willing to let go and not take it back to worry about? If it's partly your decision, start with the small stuff and work your way up to truly letting go once and for all. Because when we let go? God promises, He won't.

Hebrews6 ^18-20 (The Message) We who have run for our very lives to God have every reason to grab the promised hope with both hands and never let go. It's an unbreakable spiritual lifeline, reaching past all appearances right to the very presence of God where Jesus, running on ahead of us, has taken up his permanent post as high priest for us.

Ecclesiastes 3 (NLT) A Time for Everything
¹ For everything there is a season,
a time for every activity under heaven.
² A time to be born and a time to die.
A time to plant and a time to harvest.
³ A time to kill and a time to heal.
A time to tear down and a time to build up.
⁴ A time to cry and a time to laugh.
A time to grieve and a time to dance.
⁵ A time to scatter stones and a time to gather stones.
A time to embrace and a time to turn away.
⁶ A time to search and a time to quit searching.
A time to keep and a time to throw away.
⁷ A time to tear and a time to mend.
A time to be quiet and a time to speak.
⁸ A time to love and a time to hate.
A time for war and a time for peace.

⁹ What do people really get for all their hard work? ¹⁰ I have seen the burden God has placed on us all. ¹¹ Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end. ¹² So I concluded there is nothing better than to be happy and enjoy ourselves as long as we can. ¹³ And people should eat and drink and enjoy the fruits of their labor, for these are gifts from God. .....²² So I saw that there is nothing better for people than to be happy in their work. That is why we are here! No one will bring us back from death to enjoy life after we die.

This song really explains a lot of what I've been feeling about letting go. (Britt Nicole: Walk On the Water) This girl did a great job on her video of it.