Generally speaking, most of us do school and work for about eight hours per day, drive in the car for an average of an hour each day, eat for about two hours, watch tv and use the computer for about five hours and spend time doing MUST do’s for about two hours a day, that’s a total of eighteen hours and doesn’t even include sleep. When do we truly live?
How important is my time? A simple illustration is a modern fable that reminds me of my dad:
With a soft voice and loving eyes, a little girl greeted her father as he returned from work, “Daddy, how much do you make an hour?” Greatly surprised, but giving his little girl a displeased look, the father said, “Look, honey, I don’t tell anyone how much I make, so don’t bother me now, I’m tired.”
“But Daddy please tell me! How much do you get paid for an hour,” the girl insisted. The father, finally giving up, replied: “Twenty dollars per hour.” “Thank you, Daddy? Could you loan me ten dollars?” the girl asked. Showing his displeasure, the father sternly said, “So that’s why you asked how much I make. It’s your bedtime. Go to bed and go to sleep. I’m too tired for this right now.” It was already dark when the father arrived home.
A short while later the Dad was thinking about how he had reacted and was feeling a bit guilty? He felt bad he had responded to his daughter the way he did. Trying to relieve a little of his guilt, the father went to his daughter’s room and asked “are you asleep, princess?” “No, Daddy. Why?” said the sleepy girl. “Here’s the ten bucks you asked me for when I got home,” the father said.
“Thanks, Daddy!” joyfully said the daughter, while putting her hand under her pillow and removing a sandwich bag full of change she had stashed there. “Now I have the whole twenty dollars! I finally have enough” the little girl said to her Dad, who was now looking down at his daughter with a confused expression. It was then the little girl made it clear why she wanted the money “Daddy, could you sell me an hour of your time?”
This story has always made me tear up, because I have that type of dad and because I never want to be that type of person. I never want to be the type of person that thinks omoney or work could ever be more important than spending valuable time with people whom I love. Sometimes it occurs to me I have been so busy trying to move forward in some aspect of my life I forgot to live the life I had at the present moment. Some days I have a to do list of 100 things, a grocery list, a shopping list, list after list, and it makes me so angry because I don’t want that kind of like. The one where always I am aiming toward something, headed somewhere and my efforts are in majority for would or could be. Other time is wasted looking over my shoulder trying to solve some riddle about my past.
And I don’t want that!! Not even a little. Every day I want to do my best to live well centered in the “now.”
…And while Cinderella and her prince did live happily ever after, the point is, gentlemen that they lived. Grand Dame in the movie “Ever After”
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