I never really thought much about time until I became a parent. First, we were measuring time in weeks, then months, eventually years (although we still get half and quarter years thrown in the mix sometimes when my daughter states her age. It's 7 and a half for the record.) Time started moving very, very quickly and before I knew it, we were sending her off to kindergarten. I'm sure that she will be in college before I can blink! In my yoga classes this past week, I have been talking about time. The passage of time, how we spend our time, using more time for each breath. We only get a certain amount of it, and we can't accumulate more. We can get more stuff, more friends, more money, even more kids, but we can never get more time, so how we use the limited amount we have is important.
I first started thinking about taking time off from my job as a school counselor when we lost a close friend to cancer and the idea of running out of time became very real. I began to realize that I wanted more control over my time and the ability to spend more quality time with my family. I wanted to volunteer at my daughter's school while she still wants me there, create family memories while the world is still a magical place full of wonder, and have dinner together before the social schedule filled up and teen angst set in.
In a podcast I was listening to the other day, a musician was talking about his favorite picture of the audience. Everyone in the crowd was connected to the music and no one was holding a cell phone to record the experience. They were fully in the present, enjoying that fleeting moment in time. He said that he believes his job is to help others create memories. I believe my job is to help you make sure that you are present in the moment and to help you evaluate the important questions in life such as "How are you spending your time?" When we look back at the end of our life, the memories we have of times with the ones we love are all that we take with us. I am committed to making those memories full of laughter, love, joy, and hope. I still find the world a magical place full of wonder at 41, and hope to feel this way until I run out of time.
