I hate to go to bed at night. I love to stay up late and go to bed exhausted. I wake up tired and don’t have to be pleasant or energetic in the morning. No one in my house talks to me in the morning. To be honest, I like it that way. It takes me a while to get to that cheerful stage of my day.
If the day was longer and there was more time in the day, I think I would like to sneak in a little nap. My grandfather took us to Mexico when we were children and I have visited a couple of times as an adult. They have it figured out. Every day around noon, everything in the small towns shuts down. They all take the time to take a siesta. What a wonderful way to go through life. Just take a nap. After the hot noon hours, the shops open back up and they go back to the day at hand.
They have made more time to do the things that they feel necessary. Much of the industrialized world, on the other hand, is constantly trying to find a way to squeeze time. The average vacation for an American is now 5 days per year and the workweek is up to 46 hours.
There is no more time. No time to relax and listen. You can shave in the car on the way to work. Microwave corn dogs aren’t that bad, but they aren’t that good either. We find it necessary to do everything faster so we can fill our days up with more things to do.
We have the same amount of time that Andy Taylor had in Mayberry, NC. They always had time to sit on the front porch and enjoy a cup of coffee and have casual conversations with the neighbors that strolled by on their late afternoon walk. They found the time to play a little guitar from time to time. They found the time to dress for dinner.
Why is it that we think we have to make the time to enjoy the important things in life… to relax after a home cooked meal and listen to our children as they tell us of their daily adventures? We can’t make more time… it has already been made. The last time I checked, there were still twenty-four hours in a day.
We simply need to use our time more wisely. Turn the cell phones off every once in a while and turn the television off every once in a while. In our home, we now use some of our evening to read or to talk to each other. At first the children thought we had lost our minds. They didn’t have the time. I have learned a great deal about my family by just sitting back and listening. I still think I could spend a little more time making the time to do that.
I always had this vision of waking up in the morning… grinding my fresh coffee beans and sitting down to read the morning newspaper. The sun would be shining in the picture window and I would slowly come to life. There would be no hurry. I could take all the time I want. I’ve never done that. I don’t want to miss any thing when I am awake so I feel like I shouldn’t just sit around in the quiet.
We are a temporary fixture in this world and are here for only a short amount of time. Time is the constant. Time will eventually win the race between all of us. I for one will try to portion out my day to do the things that are right, good and fruitful.
One day I will sit down in the quiet of the dawn with my cup of aromatic coffee and read my newspaper while silently pondering the schedule of my day… even if I have to go to Mexico to do it.
Shannon R Killman
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