Do you find yourself wishing it was Friday when you just got to work on Monday? When I was young, I would trudge in on Monday and greet fellow employees on the elevator saying “I wish it was Friday”. Now I come in on Monday and say “wow the weekend just flew by”. It feels like I just left here and no longer “wish” it was Friday because now it is always Friday. I was wishing my life away. Now I wish it would just slow down to the lovely, lazy pace of summers past when I had all the time in the world to play and lay in the sun and run through the sprinklers and ride my bike. Or just lie in the backyard in the grass and clover and look up and imagine what the cloud formations looked like.
I am at the point in my life where I want to try and savor everything because it seems like the days are minutes and the months are weeks. What happened? What is really scary is that my 18 and 16 year old granddaughters feel the same. It used to be just the “old folks”, of which I am now one, that used to tell us young ones that the older you get the faster time goes. I choose to believe that in this new day and age it is technology that causes time to feel as if it is going 100 miles an hour and is on a super fast track to the end. My reasoning for this is that we no longer have to wait for anything. You can get approved for a loan in an hour, you can get a letter from a relative in minutes by email or instantly if you use instant messaging! Get on a plane and fly across the country in 3 hours. It used to take us 4 hours in the just to go visit relatives 200 miles away. The only advantage in time going by so fast (and this is only my theory) we are not aging as fast because in actuality, years are only 6 months long not 12. That is why people live longer because the years are shorter. How do you like that for a scientific theory?
I now find myself thinking in February that I need to start planning what to plant in the flower beds because it will soon be Mother’s Day and I must plant them or I won’t be able to enjoy them in this now abbreviated summer. I almost feel a panic of trying to get everything into my life and to really enjoy it. We have to get together for Memorial Day, 4th of July, birthdays, breakfast in the mountains, etc, etc. And then guess what? It is Labor Day and then the kids are back to school. How did this happen?? I want it to slow down. I wish I could make it slow down.
This past year I made a real effort to not worry so much about how many people were coming to dinner during the holidays and what I was going to make. I even hosted a cookie exchange and really enjoyed myself. I want to make memories so that my children and grandchildren and, hopefully, great grandchildren will remember me with fond memories just like me and my children have fond memories of my own mother. If only I could have just a ½ hour of time again with Mom. Sitting in the kitchen solving crossword puzzles, going to bingo, making ornaments or Halloween costumes or just talking to her as she makes tortilla dough. Just once more dying and cutting her hair, putting her make-up on for her or even just a quick hug.
Take time to love and to listen to your friends and family. If your family wants you to go to dinner or whatever, savor the fact that they want you around. Enjoy your time here because all too soon we will no longer be. Hopefully, we will be with God and I am thinking that it is going to be just like my childhood was!
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So true, and so confusing. I find myself thinking it is always Friday, or if it Monday, it is always Monday etc. The days are nearly indistinguishable. What I have noticed however, is that if you are waiting for something, time will finally slow down. It would appear this supports your theory, most things are nearly instantaneous as a result of technology. So, granted I would not give up my computer, or cell, or fax but…perhaps the answer is to reinstitute the concept of patience. By setting more long-term goals and laying the groundwork for far reaching results that must be tended to periodically, we may be able to perceptibly slow our own timetables down. This is an important concept, delayed gratification. It is taught in our colleges and for some, it is innate. We have grown accustomed to instant results and too often we are willing to settle for less than our ideal in order to be done with it, the proverbial emptying of the plate. Accomplishments are great, they improve self-esteem among other things but, they can be broken down into savory bites which provide a sense of achievement over a longer term and result in an even greater; dare I say “ideal” accomplishment – eventually. This is a case of looking at the bigger picture, of thinking things through, and of being willing to put in the time necessary to make good choices, avoid harming others, minimize compromising your own values and ultimately making the kind of contributions that do not require a defense. A splash can be satisfying or you can toss pebbles and marvel at the resultant waves.