Righting the Course; Reclaiming My Time

• Andi


• 16 May 2014

And God’s mercy and inhexhaustible fertility are such that much good came from what might have been an irredeemable mess. – Kathleen Norris in The Quotidian Mysteries

When I get wistful, I know I am out of balance.  When I feel myself slipping into dreams of ideal days, it’s because I am not living them. As soon as I begin to imagine escape and days in a mountain cabin with only a stack of book, as soon as I imagine those things and begin to ache for them, I know that I have turned my daily life from the course on which I once had it bent.

Life is too fleeting, too precious, too incredible for me to not do all I can to make the daily of life my dream.

My dream for my days includes these amazing things:

• the chance to write and tell stories and play with words
• the honor of talking with other writers about their work
• the ability to choose the work I take on because I believe in it and the people behind it
• the time to sit on the porch and think and scribble and watch goats play
• the opportunity to put my hands in soil and watch the life there grow
• the leeway to play music loud and see it live often
• the freedom to take long walks or naps as I see fit
• the pleasure of sewing, watching one stitch at a time take shape
• the joy of lingering conversation over long-cold coffee or tea
• the power of cooking food I grew or that was grown by people I know
• the simple warmth of puppy breath and chicken cluck
• the rest and discovering of reading great books
• the blessing of sleep come after a good day of work without worry for tomorrow.

I don’ t need scads of money to do these things. What I need is time. Once again I am reminded that time is my most precious resource and that I would be wise to use it doing work I love with people I adore.

I have made a mess of what my time looks like these days, but I’m setting that right, resteering my course back to the path I have chosen.

It feels good just to turn the wheel and watch the ship return to its right path.

What does your daily dream life look like?