Heather Shuker
  • Ledgerock Pottery
    • Buy some pots
    • Pottery in the Wild
    • The Making of a Mug
  • Throwing Lines
  • About Me
  • FAQs
  • Ledgerock Pottery
    • Buy some pots
    • Pottery in the Wild
    • The Making of a Mug
  • Throwing Lines
  • About Me
  • FAQs

Throwing lines

Making Time

10/30/2011

3 Comments

 
My cousin Jacki, aka Silverpixels, has a nice little habit of nagging me into action. Not sledgehammer nagging, mind you, more like a small army of gnats. She launches a series of light little landings that by themselves might prove ineffective, but in a swarm has me springing to action. You know, in a good way, not the psychotic, flailing, these-heinous-creatures-are-going-to-drive-me-insane kind of way. Well, sometimes it feels like that, but I know she does it out of love.
 Jacki has managed to nudge me into my first craft show, my website, and now this blog post. A while back, she requested the topic, “time”, for a post. She was a bit vague as to what about time, exactly, but she’s artistic, she can’t be nailed down to specifics. I can certainly talk about my relationship with time, though, and even if that isn’t what she wanted, I’m pretty sure a fresh blog post will at least placate her for a little while before the next onslaught of tiny wings. 

One of the hardest things for me to wrap my head around is that, life span aside, we are all given the same amount of time. Twenty-four hours trucks by each day no matter how we spend it. Whether I choose to be: in my pajamas watching HGTV, or hiking the Appalachian Trail, or writing a book, or reading Twitter, or cooking, or roaming around Target, or getting drunk, or working at a job I love, or working at a job I hate, or playing video games, or gardening, or worrying, or playing with my kids, or crying, or laughing, or watching the wind blow... the same hours tick by regardless. 

There are moments when I am proud of the way I’m spending my time and moments when I am guilt ridden. Sometimes I forget to pay attention to the fact that this is life, right now, happening, and this is how I am choosing to live it. And sometimes I remember that fact and feel overwhelming anxiety. 

It is interesting to me that some people can’t manage to do anything with their lives while other people are out there getting it done, making an impact in their chosen way. We all have exactly the same amount of time, though, even if it doesn’t feel like we do.

The difference lies in our choices. How and where we work, the size of our family and/or house, the extent of our social network, and pretty much every obligation we have started as a choice (and can be changed by choice). We have created our reality to include “spare” time or not. We have decided with our yeses and noes whether we are over extended or whether we have little pockets of time in our lives that are available when the call comes through that a friend wants to meet us for coffee or to have an adventure.  

Another thing I have had to wrap my head around is that time is not money. Yes we make choices about money that influence the obligations we have for our time, but we all get the same sunrise each morning, the sheets we wake up under just might have a different thread count. 

Actually, the whole time/money connection could be a whole separate post. No doubt a self-deprecating post where I would lament about bad financial decisions and how they can suck your life away. I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t be uplifting at all. Never-mind, forget I brought it up.

It is also true that if we are not healthy, time takes on a whole different dimension. Pain eats time. Come to think of it, Maslow’s ideas about the Hierarchy of Needs nicely sums up how different states of being are likely to affect how we spend our time. I probably should have sent you there first. 

Anyway, the point is, I think it is human nature to want to accomplish something with my life. The problem is finding time to do it... making time to do it... using time to do it. It all comes down to whether I decide, every day, to get off my oversized rump and DO something or stay in auto pilot and drone through my life until it is over. I’d like to think awareness is half the battle.

And as a matter of fact, maybe having a swarm of gnats visit every once in a while is exactly the kind of motivation I need. Thanks, Jacki.

3 Comments
silverpixels link
12/9/2011 01:17:52 pm

perfect as always!

Reply
silverpixels link
12/27/2011 02:43:13 pm

soooooo... it has been a while.....

Reply
jacki taylor
2/5/2012 07:16:17 am

ummmmmmmmmmm it has been a WHILE since I have read anything NEW!

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Picture

    I like to throw things.

    Picture

    Archives

    October 2017
    May 2017
    January 2017
    November 2016
    August 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    February 2016
    September 2015
    July 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    January 2015
    August 2014
    June 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    December 2013
    September 2013
    July 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    October 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    March 2011
    January 2011
    December 2010
    November 2010
    October 2010
    September 2010
    August 2010
    July 2010
    June 2010
    May 2010
    April 2010
    March 2010

    RSS Feed

    Picture

     Subscribe in a reader

Proudly powered by Weebly