Time is on my side

“Time is on my side, yes it is…”
The Rolling Stones

First of all, just so you know, I put up a tiny little “Pop-In” video today on The Imperfect-Perfect Life. This is one of the things I am doing with my time these days! I am so enjoying reaching out to you via video.

Yesterday, as I was searching for an image to use for the blog post, I found this one, and it just lit me up like a Christmas tree. It kind of made me giggle. It felt a little Alice-in-Wonderlandish, and it was delightful. And what it spoke to was, first of all, the need to take life more lightly, and, too, to celebrate the expansive nature of time. What if, instead of being afraid that time would run out, you celebrated the unbelievable, always expanding, ever unfolding, amazing multiplying amount of time there is? Because the more we use time properly, the more time we have. And you know what? I will be 64 on April 30, and I have no idea how long I will live, but what I know for sure is that I can’t worry about “how much time is left” but what I need to be concerned with is how to best use the time I’ve got, right here, right now. And if you absolutely live fully and completely in the present moment you will have all the time you’ll ever need to do anything you want to do.

But the thing is you have to use time to have time. You do waste time if you sit there not using the time available to you. That is when “the sands of the hourglass” slip away faster and faster because you are wasting it. You know the expression “use it or lose it?” This is true of time.

We all have a finite amount of time on this earth. Some people die much too young, and others live past 100, but the richness of the life, the impact someone had during their time on earth, comes about because while they were here, for 30 years or 100, they lived their lives, they used their time. That is exactly what I am committed to learning to do. If you don’t worry about how long you will be here, but about how well you spend the time you have, you will have a life well spent and you will leave an amazing legacy for those who come after you. That’s how I intend to live.

You know, it’s even in the videos I am making. I have felt very shy, this lopsided, cattywompus face of mine, still paralyzed from Bell’s Palsy years ago, makes it a little hard for me to click the little button to start the videos. But I am doing them with a happy heart because I believe that they matter. You know, we can’t wait until things are perfect (They never are. Watch that little video at the top of this post about The Imperfect-Perfect Life.), and I’m never not going to be paralyzed, but if through my videos I can say something that helps even one other person then I have done something that matters to me. When we feel called to do something and we do it full on with everything we have in us we are living our lives. I have spent too many years depressed, afraid, and hiding. And the more I do the less afraid I am to do more. My world is opening up in the most amazing ways, I am giddy happy, and I want to tell you that this is absolutely possible for you too.

Where do you begin? Begin here. There is not only no time like the present but now is the only time there is, the only time we will ever have, and if you don’t start right now, in this moment, you never will. No matter how you have lived your life prior to this very second I want you to live the next second like a whole new world has just opened up before you. My God the wonders! And it’s all up to you. Take the next 5 minutes. Set a timer or watch a clock. Exactly 5 minutes, no more, no less. Do something that will set you on a new path of being awake, alive, and aware. Maybe grab a notebook or a piece of paper and write “I _______________ will not waste another moment. From this moment forward I will use my time to create a life that will make me feel fully alive. I will use my time. I will…” And for those 5 minutes write like your hair is on fire! Go!

Understand that I am not saying you have to radically change your whole life. Actually you don’t have to do anything different than you have been doing other than to wake up and do it with your whole being. What if in the morning instead of making coffee you MAKE COFFEE! Be awake and alive and present to every step of the process. Take that first sip and be so present when you take it that you feel a thrill of delight run through your whole body. And what comes next? What is the next thing that you do? Do it with your eyes wide open, do nothing by rote, if you are doing the same thing every day do it with gusto so that each time it is a whole new experience, let your body ignite! That first sip of coffee can be like a 4th of July fireworks display! Wow!

If you don’t know where to start go back to the quote I shared yesterday when the wise woman said, “…pay closer attention to where you are right now. Then start from where you’re standing.” Where are you right now? What is before you, around you, beside you? Reach out and touch each thing tenderly, and with awareness. Feel tremendous gratitude for each and every thing present in your world in this moment. Now use these things, claim these things, celebrate these things, and I don’t care if you never leave your house — I rarely leave mine — there is an enormous life that can be lived right there, and isn’t it time? “If not, why not? If not now, when?”

And use time to your advantage, in whatever situation you find yourself in. For example, if you are suffering from anxiety, most of which is based in a tremendous fear of the unknown, projecting sometimes so far out in time we are paralyzed in the present, say to yourself, “I only have to get through the next 5 minutes.” And do your level best to shut everything out beyond those 5 minutes, and use those 5 minutes to create a state of mind that can carry you into the next five with greater ease. Make a cup of tea. Rub essential oils all over your body, like lavender, on your temples, at your throat, on your shoulders, down your arms, on your legs. Massage it in. Sit and breathe in and out, very slowly, breathing in the lavender. And then ease into the next 5, and the next. You can go through a whole day like this, but probably, after awhile, you can expand the time you are working with to 10 minutes, to 20, 30, an hour. It’s a practice, you build, like building with blocks, time on time. Take it at your own pace. Go slower than you think you need to. Make time your ally. And whatever you were worried about? Well, by the time you get around to it everything will have changed, fallen into place, at the very least you will be different and totally prepared to handle it. For now only the next 5 minutes matters. We can all handle 5 minutes, right?

I will leave you here dear friends. But I have to tell you that this whole idea has opened up a whole new way of living and being for me and I couldn’t be happier. And I invite you to share your thoughts about this in the comments, to tell me how you are awakening to a new use of time in your own life, or perhaps how you have begun to use 5 minutes to change your life to a life of greater peace and ease. I’d really love to hear what you did with your 5 minutes. Right now, that’s all you need to do. Doesn’t that feel good?