Time after Time

Thinking of lessons that I have learnt is proving to be more difficult than I thought until I thought about something that I am running out of - time. Is it just me or are the days passing by faster than ever? How can I reclaim time?

1) Create memories
I am a big fan of creating memories. When my children were smaller, I spent a lot of time doing things with them that would create memories. The only trouble is that my sons have no recall of all that trouble ;-) For example asking them what their favourite childhood memory is - resulted in blank stares.....I mean these children have travelled overseas since they were three years old ;-) The flip side to this is that when my time is stretched as thin as it is now - my son's recall of events have become amazingly crystal clear... like Mum you still owe me $40 from last week (and they have heaps of those memories!) All I need to do is to make memories for my sons now...

2) Capture the moment

The best item that I have ever bought is a digital camera. When I remember I take that little item with me and snap away. I am not going to win any photography awards but what I capture lasts much longer. Photos are one of the reasons why I joined facebook so that I could actually see people that I haven't seen for so long... In this photo here, which incidentally I got off facebook, are members of my whanau - my beautiful mother (sitting in the front with my sister), her parents, two sisters two brothers, one sister-in-law and one brother-in-law, my brother, and two of my cousins. The special thing about this photo is of the fourteen people captured in this picture - only six of us are left. I miss every person in this photo that is no longer here and looking at this picture reminds me of what it will be like to see them again. I can't wait!!

3) Slow down...
I think I am finally getting to an age where I am not in rush all the time. The urgency of matters is still critical and lets face it the older you get the more matters there are..... but I'm not in a rush. Something has happened inside me when I turned 40 that actually made me change the way I see things and take things slower....probably why I am always late ;-(

4) Major on the Majors, Minor on the Minors
I learnt this new phrase - major on the majors and minor and on the minors. It means to concentrate on the big things and let the little ones go. This is not as easy as it sounds but in order to make up time, it comes in handy. The time and energy put into chasing something is draining, so if you are following up something - make it count. My brother has had some personal information shared with friends overseas which has come back to him. He was upset about who told who and so on. I asked him - Was the information true? Yes. Well then, there isn't a problem... I figure my brother has two choices 1)He could go out and try and get some redress for this slip by one of his truest friends or 2) Let it go. For me it was simple - the information would get out to your friends anyway - and at least it was shared by someone you trusted so that it was factual... hurtful, but still the truth.

5) Spend it
I was travelling home from somewhere and I had an ephinany: I need to spend time to make time. I don't spend enough time with my sons and I need to do this. I keep thinking about the saying that you don't think about your work in your last hours - its your family that are going to occupy those moments. I now have to re-create that in my every day. So wish me luck as I do something that I should have been doing all this time....

An ode to Time
Time is free, but it's priceless.
You can't own it, but you can use it.
You can't keep it, but you can spend it.
Once you've lost it you can never get it back.”

Have a great week everyone. May you use the next seven days well..

Yours in friendship,


Mxox