Time Like the Present

I once had a week that I was certain my to-do list would not survive.

My daughter’s college applications were due, as well as a writing contract. The house was piled with over 100 donated Halloween costumes that needed to be sorted and delivered, and I was six days from flying out of state without my kids, and all the preparation that entails.  

Just as I was trying to wrap my head around getting everything on the list done, I received a phone call that dropped it to the floor.

My son had been in an accident,

I was told, and was being life-flighted to a neurotrauma unit. 

If you ever want to put life’s challenges into perspective, go spend time in neurotrauma at a children's hospital.

I will never be the same. 

The following weeks were not in fact spent on college applications, packing suitcases or sorting Halloween costumes.

The to-do list that had previously kept me up at night was immediately replaced by alarms set to administer medication, and lying awake haunted by what-if scenarios. 

I’m beyond grateful to report that he made a full recovery, and

The experience taught me a life changing lesson about how we perceive time.

It’s this - 

If you had asked me at the beginning of that week if I could spare a few hours, the answer would have been no. Spare hours were nowhere to be found. They simply did not exist.

And yet when my son suddenly required 40 of them, voila! Out of nowhere, there they were! 

And with them came the realization that when we say that we don’t have time for something, that’s simply not true.

We do have the time. What we actually mean is that we are making the choice to do something else. 

And that’s okay!

I could tell you, for example, that I don’t have time to clean the house, but if you announce that company is arriving in one hour, I will suddenly be free to dust and vacuum. 

This awareness has empowered me to decide what I most want to accomplish, and then treat it as the equivalent of caring for my son after his accident.

I simply make it happen. If something isn't a priority on the other hand, I acknowledge it as such, rather than play victim to the clock.

They say there's no time like the present but the whole truth is that time is a present, a gift!

Freely given with the opportunity to decide how to use it.