“Time
in a Bottle”
Donna Reish
If
I could save time in a bottle
The first thing that I'd like to do
Is to save every day
Till Eternity passes away
Just to spend them with you
If I could make days last forever
If words could make wishes come true
I'd save every day like a treasure and then,
Again, I would spend them with you
But there never seems to be enough time
To do the things you want to do
Once you find them
I've looked around enough to know
That you're the one I want to go
Through time with
Time. It’s such a
precious commodity. Something that those of us who have been parenting, say,
for thirty years, with at least six more years of “kids at home” time, have
come to understand the preciousness of.
You know the
whole “Enjoy them now ‘coz they’ll grow up too fast!” (Or worse yet, “Enjoy
them now ‘coz soon they’ll be preteens back talking you and making your life
miserable.” Sadness…) Anyway, I remember people telling me all the time that
time would go fast…and I never believed them.
However,
during our early parenting years (the first fifteen of them), my husband worked
a job that took him out of the house sixty to seventy hours a week at least fifty
weeks a year. Because of that, while we didn’t understand that our kids really
would “grow up so fast,” we came to put a real value on time. We learned to use
it wisely, to be efficient, and to “spend” it on the most important things to
us—our kids, marriage, and God.
Time is so
similar to money—yet so different than money. Like money, once it (i.e. today)
is spent, it is gone—never to be retrieved again. Like money, there is only a
certain amount of it—and we always wish we had more of it. Like money, it can
be “spent” foolishly or wisely, invested
or squandered, used for good or for evil. Like money, it is valuable and sought
after.
Unlike
money, we all get the exact same amount of it. One of my pet peeves is to hear
someone say, “I don’t have time for __________.” Maybe I’m just too literal,
but, honestly, we all have the same amount of time to begin with. Granted, some
of us have predetermined “time expenses”—such as a large family, an ailing
parent, or other way in which our time must automatically be utilized. In that
way, we don’t really all have the same amount, of course, because those people’s
time is already partially earmarked. However, it is probably more accurate
to say, “I have already allotted my time
elsewhere, so there’s not enough left for ______.” (Okay, that’s getting picky…but
we all know people who waste A LOT of time—then say that they do not have time for this or that.)
I’m somewhat
of a “time freak.” You know how some people just really seem to love money—and want
more and more of it? Well, that is me with time. Every year when it’s time to “spring
forward” and move our Indiana clocks up one hour, I go through the house
ranting that “someone just stole an hour from me” and “we should do something—I
just had an hour stolen,” etc. etc. (To be fair, when we “fall backwards” and
gain an hour, I also squeal with delight that “someone just gave me an hour”—“I
can’t believe that I have been given a whole extra hour!” And yes, this
tradition drives my family crazy!) This afternoon, when my family pulled out to
go watch football, I looked at the clock and did my mental math, fell back on
the bed and said aloud gleefully, “I have been given four precious hours to do
whatever I want to do!” (That’s not really true because this week I start teaching writing to seventy-four students, so
I have some definite “predetermined time expenses” in my life right now!) But
yeah, I’m crazy about time. I love clocks,
hourglasses, and time pieces. I have timers in six drawers—and the most used
app on my phone is definitely my timer!
Strange time
attachments aside, what does time have to do with “Character Training From the
Heart” (our new blog name and seminar name) or “Positive Parenting” (our former
name)? So many of our New Year’s resolutions, family goals, relationship needs,
household jobs, and work tasks could be accomplished much better simply with
better time management skills. A funny difference between time and money that
we often do not consider is that of “stolen money” or “stolen time.” If someone
broke into our car and stole our billfold (and a hundred dollars), we would be
outraged. We had been “robbed”—some of our precious commodity of money taken
from us. We had plans with that money. We were going to pay a bill or buy some
needed item for our kids. But now that money is gone—stolen.
However, we
continually allow time robbers to rob us of our time—without being outraged or
trying to put a stop to it. We purposely have chosen not to have a television
or game system for most of our parenting years. When people asked us
(especially many years ago with several kids at home and homeschooling, etc.)
how we got so much done, we only needed to say, “We don’t have a television.”
And they nodded—they knew exactly how we got so much done.
Now I’m not
saying that anything fun should be omitted from your life (my family is at our
oldest son’s house watching football and when they return, my husband and I are
going dancing!), but I am saying that we can’t complain about not having enough
time, we can’t wonder why we can’t get certain things done, we can’t wish for
more hours with our kids and spouse—if we let time robbers continually steal
them from us (the hours, not the kids!).
We would all
love to be able to “save time in a bottle” like the old Jim Croce song says. We
would all love to “make days last forever” sometimes. But as the song says,
that can’t happen—and “there never seems to be enough time to do the things we
want to do….”
So what do
we do to “get more time”? What do we do to get more accomplished? What do we do
to have more time with our kids? Tune in later this week---for some “Timely
Tips”—things that we have found to work for us in the areas of time management
and saving that “time in a bottle.”
P.S. For
those of you who are nostalgic for old music, like I am, I’ll put the Youtube
link below to that song. Take a look at the words---they really are poignant
when it comes to parenting. And no, I am not just fond of this song because it
is an absolutely perfect Viennese Waltz song! Smile…. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fyTfbtZeGeU
