"Time is what we want most, but what we use worst." That is a quote by William Penn, and although it is very short...it is also very true! I guess you can say he wasted no time in writing that thought!
To give a good example of wanting time, yet wasting it, take this post for instance. I started writing it this morning around 10:00, but I quickly got busy and didn't get around to coming back to finish it until 10:20 this evening. Naturally, what I am writing now is different than what I would have written then. Unfortunately, I had a very full day in between. I completed a spreadsheet for a new company I am covering and wrote two thirds of the report for it. I will likely go back and finish the report once I finish this post. I also made changes to six reports that came back from editing and sent an additional two reports in to the editor. I have sent out five emails to various people solving near-term issues, and I have worked Ashleigh through three lessons for her home schooling. Maddie and I have had three discussions about her school work as well. At 3:45 I showered and got ready to help teach Ashleigh's karate class at 4:30. After the class I stopped at Mc Donald's for a cookie for Ashleigh and a coffee for me. I then drove home, dropped Ashleigh off, and picked up Maddie for our karate class at 6:00. After class, we stopped for a coffee (I know I am addicted!) and a soda for her. We came home, ate dinner, and I worked with Ashleigh on her blog post. I also downloaded a program I needed for work while I waited for Ashleigh to finish typing in her blog post. Once she was done, I went upstairs to spend a little bit of quality time with Ashleigh. Now, as I sit here, I am reflecting on all of the time I have wasted over the years doing things that were not productive. Arguments with my wife that I wish never happened. Hurt feelings about little inconsequential things. Time I spent angry or upset. I regret the moments I never got to spend with a friend or my wife or children because I chose to do other things. I think of the work I have yet to do on projects due next week and I think, in twenty years, no one will remember what I wrote, or for that matter whether I was right or wrong with my call. My report is good for about a week or two after it is published. After that, no one is likely to read it again, except for me, at some point in the future, when I am getting ready to write another report on the company in the future, and I then want to see how I phrased something in the past. Time is a man-made construct. What we did in the past can't be undone. There is no guarantee we will be around in the future to do anything. We make plans anyway just in case. What we have now is this moment. How are you going to spend this moment? Reading this blog post? I will tell you how I am going to spend my next moments...the best part of my day. I am going to go and hug my daughter Ashleigh good night. I will give her a kiss and tell her I love her. I will then give my Mom a kiss good night and tell her I love her. Finally, I will go in and give my daughter Maddie a hug and tell her that I love her as well. That is how I wish all of my moments to be. Letting those I love know that I love them. Instead, life happens and I do other things. Enough things so that most of my day is taken up with things other than me focused on the ones I love. Make time for yourself every day. Spend that time with the ones you love. If you must do other things. Do them efficiently so that you will actually get the time to spend with the ones that you love. As far as I know, we are only on this world for one go around. When you are on your death bed, are you going to regret that you didn't get one more report done? Or might you regret the day a long time ago, when you were alone on the beach with the one you loved, and instead of just enjoying the moment you were worried about writing a report that nobody now even remembers or ever gave two shits about? In the end, we all have responsibilities and work. We DO NOT have to worry about it though. We should get it done as quickly as we can while doing a good job with it and then move on to do other better things with the ones we love. I miss my wife, and while I regret the times we were together where we were arguing. If we could have seen the future, I think we would have spent those moments differently. I know I would have. The fact is that none of us can see the future. Because of this, I think it is best to act towards each other how we would if we could. I am not talking about neglecting your responsibilities. I am talking about the time it takes you to do your responsibilities, and then what you do with your time afterwards. One day will not be another day, for all of us. What do you hope that you will do on that day? Since there is no way to tell when that day will be for you or your loved ones, It's best to spend those precious moments between responsibilities as if there was no tomorrow...for one day, there won't be.
1 Comment
Gina
4/30/2017 10:12:23 pm
Thank you! Such truth. 💙
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