Our days and nights tend to be in great part very predictable. Daily we take almost the same steps and do similar tasks. Nevertheless, in the midst of our precious routines, one of the most common complaints we hear is:
“I don’t have time for anything!”
Curious is that time remains the same. It never changes. Each day has the same seconds, minutes, and hours.
Can they possibly change from one day to the next?
We could say the problem likely lies in our failure to “take” time to enjoy the time we have as we would like, instead of running around doing “urgent” things that seem to be never ending, and seldom create pleasure.
Then we get to the end of the day, and we ask:
Where did the time go?
What do you do with yours?
As a suggestion, begin to closely examine each of your activities. Awaken your conscious to your senses. Pay close attention to your ability to use each. Touch the surface of an interesting rock, smell the aroma of a flower, look at the majesty of the heavens, hear the song of a bird, enjoy the sweet taste of a mango.
Like everyone, I have my own routines. One of my favorites is my “Daily Deed” which includes reciting aloud 31 Seeds of Success, while I drink my coffee in the morning and watch the sunrise. During this time, a few days ago, on a day like any other, it became a day which I will mark in history:
As I walked outside, nice and early, just before dawn, I saw how one of my favorite stars, Sirius, twinkled to greet me on the eastern horizon. I raised my gaze and saw Orion’s Belt, right where it’s supposed to be, pointing the way to Sirius. After some stretching and “Sun Saluting,” I prepared a nice hot cup of aromatic coffee which impregnated the air, with the promise of its wonderful flavor.
At exactly 6:00 am, as I began to recite my daily seeds, with my cup of coffee in hand, and watched in wonder as the night gave way to the day. The clouds, before almost imperceptible, became visible against the blue sky. Then, suddenly and without warning, there was an explosion of color in the sky. It began at the edges of the clouds and soon invaded the heavens above. During the next several minutes, I experienced a spectacle in different tones: white, black, red, purple, pink, and blue, completely covering the sky.
At that precise moment, I imagined it impossible for anyone else in the world, alive or dead, who could have enjoyed a sunrise, more than I enjoyed the one before me. Shortly, and to my pleasant surprise, as an added bonus, my macaws paid a visit to eat homegrown sunflower seeds, and then later our garden gave us a spectacular zucchini.
You might say:
“That’s nice, Rob, but what does this have to do with my life? Do you want me to get up in the morning and watch the sunrise every day, feed macaws, and take care of a garden?”
Though it’s probably not a bad idea, this is not my intention. Instead, don’t do what I do, or what anyone else does. Think daily about what you do and how you do it. Consider how you can awaken your consciousness to things in your ambiance. Determine where your time goes and how much of it you invest in each activity.
In the end, most important aren’t the steps we take, rather how we enjoy them.
Where you can you take an instant to look at a beautiful flower?
Who can you plan your day to see every sunset?
What will motivate you to see each sunrise?
Minutes are the words which form the sentences, paragraphs, and chapters in your book of life. As such, awaken your senses to each step of the way, making yours a story worth remembering.
∞ Rob McBride ∞
LL IV 13