Time, the Clock, and the Lightbulb
August 28, 2012written by Cathy Baker, mom of two sweet girls, living in the ozarks of Missouri
Apparently I’m feeling a bit sentimental lately. First, last week, with The Gift of an Ordinary Day, and now this week’s post is a bit reflective of sorts too! I actually wrote these thoughts several years ago on my personal blog, and it’s a concept I’ve thought of often over the past several years, and have been thinking of this past summer. Here it is…
I recently checked out Richard Swenson’s book, “A Minute of Margin“, which is 180 short readings. The concept is this…even a page in a book requires margins…but often our lives our so full, they have no margins in them, but our lives need margins. I haven’t read very far in the book, but it’s VERY good. There are so many thought provoking ideas…here’s a couple:
He was talking about how once upon a time and there were no clocks and he asks…”What was it like to have no notion of a second or a minute or even an hour? To never be late or early? To not even know what late or early is?” He then talks about how the clock broke up the day and the light bulb broke up the night and he says “The clock and the light…they gave us time, then they stole it away.”
He talks about how we are a nation on the move and in a hurry…fast food, rush hour, FedEx, Sprint phone calls, Quicken, Slimfast…and he goes on to ask “Is there a speed limit to life…a pace beyond which the brain, body and the spirit begin to suffer? What happens when we exceed this limit?…Speed. Hurry. We pay a price for the pace at which we live.”
Life at a slower pace…what does that look like? Do you think it’s necessary? Do you have seasons of pausing in your life? The older I get the more and more I realize that life is too short and too precious to rush through! And even as I write this, I am well aware of how fast my calendar is filling up with the beginning of the school year upon us. Does anyone else feel this too?
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Tags: Pace of Life, Time |
RLR
on August 28, 2012 9:54 pmAH, yes! So busy already!
We went camping for a week this summer, didn’t wear watches and rarely checked the time. It was glorious! We just used the amount of daylight, and our tummies, to figure out the plan for the next hour or so. Spontaneous, but not. It felt a little … lazy? … the first few days, but we were so relaxed and well-rested when we got home!
Cathy Baker
on August 28, 2012 10:15 pm@RLR – aaah, yes, camping – that’s the easiest way I find to unplug from clocks and electronics too! 🙂