Time

Have you heard the story about the hummingbird and the turtle crossing the backyard? For the turtle, the journey takes 5 hours. For the hummingbird, the journey takes 5 seconds. Time passes differently for each of them because the rhythm of their lives -- their heartbeats -- is at such a different pace. For each of them, time has a completely different yet completely true meaning.

I was thinking about Time today, what with all the Springing Forward we did over the weekend. We certainly loved our extra hour of daylight yesterday -- eating an early dinner and then running and jumping on the grassy beach path until the sun finally sank below the distant Pacific horizon. We watched the surfers become dark specks in the water as we walked slowly back to our car dreaming of the even longer days yet to come.

The rhythm of my days has certainly changed over the past 7 years. Chasing after children and multi-tasking the management of day to day disasters and distresses has, of course, been a large part of my life's tempo. But then there are moments during the day where time seems to stop and we notice how the sun shines, and the birds sing, and we realize we are truly IN THE MOMENT. We may be digging in the garden, or reading a book in the sunbeams bursting through the boys' window, or we may be sitting at the table doing puzzles or coloring or painting, but time seems to treat us differently in those moments.

I think it's impossible to live that way completely, really. There are too many checklists to be crossed off and too many chores and tasks to finish in order to smooth our travels through each day.

But then I wonder, how would I fill my days if I had all the time in the world? Probably, I wouldn't do much different than right now, IN THIS MOMENT.