What I…We Don’t Try to Race Time

“Time waits for no one.” -Folklore (dated as far back as 1225)

“The two most powerful warriors are patience and time.” – Leo Tolstoy

Have you ever noticed that every single 🛑stoplight is red when you’re in a hurry? What about those times you wishfor a 🛑red light because you need to grab something out of the console or open a water bottle, and every stinking light is 🟢green?

⏰Time hasn’t been on my side lately. There doesn’t seem to be enough of it. I have four sticky notes on my desk that have become an 🌀evolving To-Do list that I can’t seem to complete. ✅I plan lessons for my students that are sandwiched between the ⏰time for cleaning the desktops with the special COVID-killer spray, which happens every 48-minutes- all day long. Those same lesson plans must be organized so that I can teach them in person at 🏫school or via 💻technology at home- just in case I’d have to 😷quarantine with no time to prepare. I bring work home and never finish everything 😬I stuffed in my bag. I have good intentions to prepare healthy meals for 🍝dinner and don’t have the time to grocery shop for the supplies after work.

I’m not a nap person- but I’ve fallen 😴asleep on the couch twice after getting home since school started! My teacher friends and I have discovered a new level of tired in these past few weeks that we hope will settle into the old, familiar kind of tired. While the naps solved my exhaustion problem, it compounded the ⏰time factor for the rest of the evening! Those precious minutes when I closed my eyes for necessary rejuvenation cost ⏰time that I needed to devote to something else. I’m not sure it was worth it. 🙃

I’m a planner. I like to check off ✅the items on those sticky notes. I like to budget ⏰time in my days to fit in work and exercise and family time. I’m usually pretty good at making sure the chores are done, and I’m lucky that my crew works as a team with things around the house. 💯There are days that time moves too quickly, though, and I just can’t get it all done. Too many days- if I’m being honest.😏

“Time is what we want most, but what we use worst.” ~William Penn

I didn’t have ⏰time to stop by the market after work to prepare a Pinterest-worthy dinner last Thursday. I didn’t even have ⏰time to figure out what was in the cupboard to throw together and call it a meal. I made an executive decision that we would eat 🍕pizza. The mom-guilt didn’t last long because there was extra cheese, no kitchen to clean, and ⏰time to move onto the rest of my tasks. 👍🏻

“Time is a thief, but he’s not subtle.”~J.R. Moehringer

I often glance at the 🕰clock- thinking it’s maybe 7 o’clock and it’s after 10:00! Where does it go? I know- I’m whining! 😬And- I also know that I shouldn’t be. Every single person feels the pressure of time- hears the ticking of the 🕰clock. The rush of ⏰time often makes me feel rushed and anxious. There’s a lot to do in all of our days. Am I right?

“Time is the wisest counselor of all.” – Pericles

We had our first 📚Library Day at school last week. That is the day when I get to take my classes to the library to check out 📚books. We go every other week and spend some time reading the new selections after returning to the classroom. I set the 🕑timer for the usual 10-minutes. When it chimed to signal that time was up for silent reading, the kids groaned. They asked for more ⏰time to read. As one student put it- “I haven’t had time to just relax and read for a really long time.” 😍

It’s not just me. I think everyone is craving ⏰time for a whole lot of reasons.

“The trouble is, you think you have time.”  -Jack Kornfield

What if…we don’t try to race ⏰time? Let’s take a cue from my student who understood that the most valuable use of ⏰time in that moment was to simply relax and read. ⏰Time marches on despite our best efforts to slow it down. Use it wisely. 💞

“Time is the most valuable thing a man can spend.” – Theophrastus