Time?

Such a little word with such BIG meaning. Where do I begin…there’s just never enough time! That’s what I’ve been saying for over a decade, even before kids and now after 4, I’m still saying it!?  There has been a “calling” on my life for years to write and I’ve been ignoring it, pushing it in the corner, hiding it under stacks of books I should be reading, you name it, I did what I could to get rid of it. But you don’t get rid of a “calling”. The questions remained: how, when, where in the world am I going to find the time?

Today starts a new chapter in my book of life. I am going to take “time” back. Obviously, I cannot reverse time or grab a hold of any of the days in my past (although I wish I could a few). Those days are gone, left only to memory and photo albums. But I will grab on to today and make time actually count. I will no longer wish away the stack of laundry, the toys to pick up, the errands to run, the meals to make, the sports to drive to, lunch to be over so nap time arrives (don’t judge me) or the home business to organize and grow. One day I will turn around and my 4 sweet children will be doing all of these things for their families and I will wish for that time back again.

Take just a moment to look up the definition of time. I chose the Merriam-Webster Dictionary app to be precise. It is crazy how many definitions are listed. Not only do we fill up our time in a day to heaping heights (visual: thinking of those trucks on the freeway with furniture stacked 3x the height of the truck) but we try to do even more the next day. The first definition of time listed is: the thing that is measured as seconds, minutes, hours, days, years, etc. For this particular moment in time (:) this is the definition I’m choosing. I am 41, almost 42. Life expectancy of a female in the U.S. today is approximately 81. For sake of easy math, I’ll use 41, although I’m closer to 42. So, I’ve already lived over half my life. So if I live till 81, I’ve got 14,600 days left. My daughter is my oldest, she is 11. She’ll be home about 7 more years, or 2,555 days. My youngest is 2, so he has about 16 years left at home, or 5,840 days.

PERSPECTIVE!! This isn’t much time when you break it down like this. I truly do need to STOP wishing time away. I will admit I’ve said it over and over: “let’s just get through this week…next week will get easier…we’ll have more time…time to relax and be a family…”

Honestly, know that my purpose is not to scare you, cause unwanted anxiety or stress or have you live in fear of today and the time you have here on earth. However, I urge you and me both to open our eyes to the busyness of our lives. We need to live for MORE. I encourage all of us to do this, to faithfully seek out time and opportunities that create more time not less. Why do we race through each day to get to the end of it, take a deep sigh of relief and then wake up refreshed to just start the cycle all over again? We gather more things “to do” each new day. What we do day in and day out, ask yourself, is it accomplishing anything or leaving a mark of greatness on our family, on our community, our city, our state, our world? If it is, please keep doing it!! But if it isn’t, let’s re-think why we said yes or why we added it to our list?

When I have left this world, who will stand and say, “look how much she got done in her life…she fit so much into one day…she kept herself busy”. Honestly, it truly won’t matter what or how much I did with my time each day. No one will remember that…only the tattered “to do” lists will. What will matter is how much time did I give back to someone else? What will be held in their memories of me? How much of my time, my minutes, my hours, my days did I give to God, my husband, my children, my family, my neighbors, my community, and so on?

If your life has become too FULL and you FEEL like you are running out of time each day…then you really are!! STOP everything, re-focus, re-evaluate, gather your thoughts, organize priorities. Who matters most in your life? How much time, honestly, do you give them each day? Keep track for one day. It’s shocking! I’m not talking about the time you’ve spent doing things for them; such as, cooking, cleaning, laundry, etc. I’m talking eyeball to eyeball, nose to nose, shoulder to shoulder, hand in hand time.

I will be the first to admit, this isn’t going to be easy. This first step will be the hardest. Stopping everything and starting to say no to the things that aren’t propelling you forward in life, stopping the chaos that is busyness. Reality will hit and you will need to make choices and then be ready to respond to those choices. The second step is how you choose to respond to that new reality.

Like I said, today starts a new chapter in my life! And I know I’ll need to make the choice to start again tomorrow and the next day and next. Making the conscious choice to make “time” for those in my life that I’m supposed to love on, share my gifts and talents with, help build up and not tear down, will create more freedom in my life than I could ever imagine. Will you stop for a bit and think about this? Will you make time for it? Will you take the busyness off your schedule? How will you choose to respond to the time you have left with those you love and hold dearest to you?

I will choose to respond with JOY…everyDAY…everyTIME!