time (|_| Drink Deeply |

Time is relative. Time is fleeting. Time is what we make of it. As all of these are true, time must also be changeable yet these are simultaneously true, all the time. This makes time largely a matter of perception, like truth, but those are different discussions. This relative truth about time is one we’ve all experienced; whatever our current perception of its passing, pass it does & time’s unfortunately finite in that we can’t recreate it. Each moment is unique & should be appreciated.

Living in the moment implies varying goals with various approaches to varied people. Although the underlying desire is to make the most of every moment, that means something different to each of us & something else again from moment to moment. The most common approach is trying to fit as much as possible into any given time at hand. Being a multi-tasker by nature, I’ve run that race & can get awfully excited at the prospect of accomplishing multiple things at once.

Racing against the clock is neither fun nor helpful, unless you’re actually racing. When our focus becomes time itself, we’re stealing focus from the task or discovery begging for our attention. In order to smell the roses, we must notice them first. It’s not so much about taking the time to stop & smell – that’s certainly nice, however, & I highly recommend it when the mood strikes – as the simple fact we enrich our world each time we look around. Case in point, my cat just interrupted me.

Interruptions are ours to make of them what we will. Mid-accomplishment, it’s natural to get frustrated if interrupted & easy to expend energy trying to keep the distraction from being distracting. Not only do we end up with excess negative energy that way but we can spend more time avoiding something than if we just took a moment to appreciate it. Between paragraphs, Shadow & I played which resulted in us both being happier with maybe a minute of writing lost before letting my foot be her plaything upon continuing.

Tori Deaux of MindTweaks shared a study wherein participants were given a simple, monotonous game to play:

Even though the participants were alert and focused on their task, parts of the brain usually associated with relaxation began to light up.

At the same time, parts of the brain associated with cognitive control and sustained attention began to turn off. So even though they intended to stay alert, their brain was shutting down, forcing them into a less focused state.

So even though the person was paying attention, their brain stopped paying attention.

Breaking up the monotony helps our brains stay alive & aware. Setbacks like losing our train of thought are aggravating but there are new thoughts & different perspectives awaiting our discovery. Instead of tracking how we’re spending our moments, taking the time to enjoy them will lead to accomplishing what we want rather than trying to tackle too much. Time spent appreciating the found joys in life is never wasted & seeking found moments doesn’t require putting everything else on hold.

Dave Navarro of Rock Your Day offers his 80/20 Rule of Balance as a way to enjoy your life right now:

For example, yesterday, our family had an enormous amount of work to do in terms of cleaning up the house / tackling maintenance projects. The little ones wanted to go to the park, to go for bike rides, to play Lego for hours … but we didn’t have the time. In the past, I would have said, “there’s too much work to do … if we can get it all done, then we’ll have time to play.”

But yesterday I applied the 80/20 Rule of Balance and did this – every so often throughout the day I’d stop working and spend 15-30 minutes playing with the kids. It was rushed, I didn’t have the time I thought I needed to really “make it count,” but it didn’t matter. The kids were very happy. They didn’t need much – just a little time made a big difference. And I made some badass Lego spaceships. Really badass.

Pursuing our goals becomes more enjoyable & sustainable when we are also spending time pursuing ourselves. Those pursuits are not exclusive but have an ebb & flow as they feed into each other. We’ll each have a different balance to strike but will universally benefit from allowing ourselves to enjoy the unexpected moments amidst the scheduled ones.

(|_|*cheers*|_|)
“Who forces time is pushed back by time; who yields to time
finds time on his side.”
~ The Talmud ~

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Where DOES the time go? I know that MYgraines, landlord lunacy & a certain birthday accounts for much of this past week. As a firm believer that all things happen for a reason, I’m not prone to stress. That being said, the sheer tenacity it can take to get through the day-to-day takes its toll. Therefore, nearly a week going by without a post may make perfect sense in the current scheme of things but none-the-less baffles me. Surely there was a moment in there somewhere in which I could’ve nurtured my hopefully burgeoning audience?!

mug raised to LyricsMode

Limbo is nothing new to me but its steadily growing presence just now is beyond distracting. Imagine a storm cloud becoming ever larger & darker til it blots out the sun. No real worries given the knowledge it’ll pass yet there are certain things that cannot readily be done during its reign. The current quandary & conflux of events has my brain somewhat on hold in turn. Don’t let this comparison imply anything other than an absolute love of storms for I’m not typically that literal & now is no exception. Instead, it’s the approaching eviction date that gives the current storm mass & the lack of anywhere to go that darkens it.

All lines of logic have run askew of late. If this then we’re homeless. If that then we’re running out of time. No longer does A lead to B much less then lead to C & forget poor D as suddenly all roads lead to E[EK]. If the other, how will I make money? Having been stuck in self-perpetuating cycles, I see now that they were just that; nothing compared to the vicious cycle my husband & I now face. Work outside the home isn’t an option til living in reach of workplaces but finding lodgings without the additional income is a herculean challenge. Working from home is what will give way to the future we envision yet takes quite some time to show a return.

Between brain farts & freezes, I try to imagine what our next move is. Literally. It’s an odd bunch of ridiculously basic questions with which to start one’s 40th year. C’est la vie! Our dissenters of late have let us know that we complain &/or fail too much for their liking. That alone could/should send me on a rant of how expectations born of one’s own life & experiences canNOT be applied to ANYone else. No-one should be living by anything other than their own specifications for happiness. At present, our circumstances are just dire enough that even a mere mention could come off as complaint & simply being in such a circumstance can be construed as failure.

If there’s one High School English lesson that needs to be carried with everyone throughout life; it’s context, context, context. Due to our desire to achieve an atypical brand of success, rebuilding repeatedly has been part & parcel of the process. Each time we start again from scratch, we’re glad to be reinventing our potential & recognize that whatever has gone before was not meant to be. There are those (aka the Bourgeoisie) who’ll see such reasoning as justification. So be it. We cannot control how we are perceived. Besides, I’d much rather focus my energy on what I hope to achieve.

With trepidation that these next two weeks will pass at Warp Speed & foreboding as to where that wormhole will lead, we can do naught but stumble forth. As much as I’d love to march toward a brighter future, the light’s just not on at the end of the tunnel yet.

(|_|*cheers*|_|)
“What’s money? A man is a success if he gets up in the morning and goes to bed at night and in between does what he wants to do.”
~ Bob Dylan ~

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