Time Lost and Found

The pursuit. 

Of what? We all spend so much time worrying and reaching for the wrong things, things that won't create a better, more harmonious life for ourselves, and why?

Relationships that cause static, jobs we hate, bodies we are ashamed of. Still, we live with them, we tolerate them, we settle.

After Cooper was born (more than 17 years ago), I would wake several times a night to breast feed. No one likes getting up in the middle of the night to a crying baby. It was cold, dark, I was tired, cranky and inexperienced.

I would sit in my rocking chair and read. I enjoyed my book so much, I would sit there even after Cooper was full and asleep. I would laugh so hard I would wake up David! Sometimes I would wake him up because I was sobbing so loudly I couldn't control myself.

What book was this? Anne Lamott's Operating Instructions: A Journal Of My Son’s First Year.

Oh my goodness, what a book! I went on to read many more of her books.

I read an article recently she had written for Sunset magazine, it was called Time Lost and Found. It reminded me of what precious moments we have in life, and so many of them are wasted. We need to make the time for our passions.


Whatever they may be, you must actively pursue them.

I speak in reference to getting healthy - training and dieting. You need to make the time.  

Anne is writing about teaching her students to make the time to write, and in fact she tells them to skip the gym. But I put my head into a different place when I read this, it's about making choices. Choices in every single matter that will decide if you live your passion, or only dream it.

Here is an excerpt from the article:

They start to explain that they have two kids at home, or five, a stable of horses or a hive of bees, and 40-hour workweeks. Or, on the other hand, sometimes they are climbing the walls with boredom, own nearly nothing, and are looking for work full-time, which is why they can’t make time now to pursue their hearts’ desires. They often add that as soon as they retire, or their last child moves out, or they move to the country, or to the city, or sell the horses, they will. They are absolutely sincere, and they are delusional.

But at 80, will they be proud that they spent their lives keeping their houses cleaner than anyone else in the family did, except for mad Aunt Beth, who had the vapors? Or that they kept their car polished to a high sheen that made the neighbors quiver with jealousy? Or worked their fingers to the bone providing a high quality of life, but maybe accidentally forgot to be deeply and truly present for their kids, and now their grandchildren?

 

Read the entire article here, let it move you, let it motivate you. Buy a book, read, laugh, cry. Then get your butt to the gym and fulfill that passion that stirs inside you.

Time lost and found- Sunset Magazine article