Gift of Time

More than once today, I thought, "I have time, I should start my blog." And time after time, I did housework or wrote emails or just stared off into space. It was not a lost day by any means--there were many activities between the emailing and the housework and the staring (and my apartment is a bit cleaner from the housework part). Yet, it is once again late when I am writing, and had I scooped up those free moments earlier when I had them, I could be reading or sleeping now.

There will be plenty of time for reading and sleeping. My point here is that in the midst of our often crazy lives, we are sometimes given just the free time we need--out of the blue, a gift of no responsibility--and more often than not, we let it pass by rather than making the most of it.

It could be argued that staring off into space was exactly what I needed to do with my gift of time today, and that allowing myself to do so was far more important than writing my blog post early. On a daily basis, however, we can do better than staring off or getting lost in the mundane chores of our lives. Time, whether measured in the growth of our children or the aging of our relatives or the changes in our own lives, goes quickly, and those gifts of free moments vanish quickly as well.

It's just fine that I'm writing the post now that perhaps I could have written three times over during the course of a somewhat lazy Saturday.  It's okay that for part of that lazy Saturday, I stared off into space.  It's even, gulp, acceptable that I spent part of today's gift on housework.

All okay, as long as each day, I remember what a great gift a little free time can be.