Today’s Quotation:
The need to make wise choices encompasses every area of our lives. Since we have time for only a limited amount of stuff, we need to choose wisely what stuff we’re going to allow to take up that time. Since we have only a limited amount of time to spend with friends or to engage in leisure activities, we need to choose our friends and our activities wisely.
Elaine St. James
Today’s Meditation:
Sometimes it’s very hard to make choices–in fact, sometimes it’s very hard even to remind ourselves that we actually do have choices in the things that we do. It’s easy to get so caught up in the flow of things that we see our choices as already being made for us. We often see the idea of choosing something different than what we’re “supposed” to choose as something that would cause chaos in our lives, an idea that usually isn’t true at all.
When we have time to spend with friends and loved ones, what kinds of things do we choose to do? Do we choose things that help our friendship? I know that I’ve never liked going to movies with friends, because we couldn’t talk while we were there. It’s nice to have company at movies, of course, but when I have time to spend with friends I prefer to do things that allow us to communicate, to share thoughts and ideas.
Sometimes I may want to do one thing, but I’ll see that doing the other thing is also beneficial to other people. I may want to spend a weekend doing nothing, but then there would be no one else available to take the cross-country team to a meet. I may want to watch a show or a game on TV, but a long walk with someone I care for is much more important to both of us.
Elaine talks about what “we’re going to allow to take up that time.” It really is a question of allowing. Our time is precious. Much of it is used for things that don’t enrich us at all as people, and that’s a shame. Much of that type of time is unavoidable, especially where work is concerned– there are certain things that we have to do, whether we choose to do them or not. But when we do have a choice, it’s important that we are actually aware of the choices and the potential benefit to us and others of those choices. Being aware can help us to enrich our lives and the lives of the people we care for.
Questions to ponder:
1. What kinds of choices do you often have about how you’re going to spend your time?
2. What are your criteria for deciding how to spend time?
3. Why do we use the word “spend” when speaking of time?
For further thought:
If we take care of the moments, the years will take care of themselves.
Maria Edgeworth
Credit: Living Life Fully
