Springing Forward...But Take Your Time

 Hi!

So the clocks have changed in many parts of the world, springing forward, so to speak. Where I happen to call home, our clocks stay the same all year long. 

I've never fully understood what changing the clocks twice a year is supposed to accomplish. Hours are not lost or gained by the position of the short hand of a timepiece. Timing is what changes, not actual time.

Time is still going to be what you make it. An hour shift makes no real difference. 

Time is currency. We spend it cultivating joy, We spend it healing from loss. We spend it nurturing relationships. We spend it at jobs to make money to support our lives.

Time is precious. Time is never guaranteed. Time is what we all take for granted at different points in our lives. 

How we spend our time changes depending on what stage of life we are living. 

When we are children, it means nothing. We spend it following whatever agenda the grown-ups in our lives lay out for us. When we become adolescents, it crawls. We are in such a hurry to be those grown-ups, thinking we know everything, knowing nothing, blissfully ignorant about the reality of what's to come. Confident in our fearlessness. Thankfully. Without that, none of us would ever be willing to learn to fly.

When we become those grown-ups, reality hits. We begin to realize that the freedoms we thought would be automatic when we were teens are laced with responsibility. Our time is still not our own. We spend it educating ourselves, forging paths that will earn money, creating and nurturing mature and not-so-mature relationships, some of us become parents, some of us don't, some of us get married, some of us don't, our paths may greatly differ, but we all use our time currency, sometimes wisely, sometimes, not so much. 

As older adults, perspective on time changes once more. The fact that there is more time behind us than in front of us becomes more real as we reflect upon the lives we've built. Does that mean we are done? Absolutely not! I think it means we simply respect the passage of time more, appreciate it more, and become a bit more careful with this precious currency. 

How we choose to spend this priceless currency matters. Life is too short to spend too much of it doing things that don't light us up. Make sure you're spending yours the way that means most to you. It's yours. It's not infinite. Use it wisely. 

Spring forward, do back flips, fall back, learn to juggle, take up ballet. Take. Your. Time. 

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May we all hold our time close to our hearts, treating it with the respect it deserves... always.