Time

Time. A universal language. No matter where you are in the world, the day is constantly tracked by time. Time moves fast. It moves slow. It tick-tock tick-tock's when you are awaiting something important. It flies when you want it to slow down. Time never stops. It is never still. Time is timeless.

This is an old stopwatch of my Pop's. My Grandfather's watch. A watch that was given to my son. It has been a knick-nack. Nothing of true significance or else it wouldn't attend preschool with him resting in his pocket or sit in between my daughter's teeth when she is caught carrying it around the room in her mouth. But this watch has a history. A history that we just don't know......

Did it come by ship when my Great Grandparents traveled to the United States of America from Italy? Their home. Their country. The life that they left in search of bigger opportunities for their family? Was it an heirloom? Did my Great Grandfather use it as he was checking the showtimes at his family-owned theatre. Did he let his son borrow it to take my Nana on a date? Where did this watch come from? Nobody really seems to know but its life is far from over. Two young children have taken ownership of this stopwatch. It is special. It is shared. It is loved.

Time is something that no one ever seems to have enough of. When I was in school and/or teaching full time, time was almost non existent. The days were long but the time just flew. There was plenty of time for work but never as much for fun. During these days, I constantly wore a watch. Every second of my day was planned for. Every minute of my day reserved. The minute that I became a Mom for the first time, I put my watch away. I didn't want to feel the rush. I didn't want to worry about how fast or how slow the day was going. I just wanted to live the day by the tick tock of my own internal clock. This has worked out for me. I have more time in my day now that every minute is not accounted for. I'm not running late now. I show up early. I walk instead of hustle from here and there. I am really enjoying the time that I have now. The time to spend the entire day with my family. My children. My little ones who are growing up so quickly. So quickly, yet the time has been nicely paced for them.

I'm not hung up on time now because there seems to finally be enough of it. I love to play around with the concept of time. It is a joke amongst people who know me well. They will say, "hey, how long is that cake supposed to bake for?" And I'll reply, "I have no idea, I just go by the smell to see when it is done'". The look on their face being the exact one that I was going for. Or when camping and I literally just saw what time it was and someone asks, "Do you know what time it is?" and my reply, "hmmmm, hold on, let me check on the position of the sun.....it's 1:07pm". Their stunned expression always continues to fuel this little joke of mine. These examples are to show that I have eased up on the pressures of life and all of the time commitments that it involves because when I was in the middle of the race, I always had a bit of internal anxiousness. Always trying to catch up. Now that I have entered into a different role in my life, I have chosen not to live by my watch.

I like to live by what is happening, how we are feeling, what is going on.....that is what makes the decision, not the clock. Some think that this quality is way too relaxed. Others appreciate it. I thrive on it because I feel like we are really living life. We aren't hung up on what our watches say. We are reading the internal clocks of ourselves, our children, our family and our friends. This pace seems to create a smoother day for us. My daughter naps every afternoon, but never at the same time. This decision is based on her. How she is feeling, what she is doing. The time frame that is going to work best for her, not for us and/or our watch. If it is 9pm on a nice summer evening and our kids are still running around enjoying a BBQ with friends, so be it. Let them live. Let them enjoy the moment! We aren't super strict with time in our house because we feel that by placing less importance on it, we are promoting a more balanced life style for our kids and ourselves. Of course, time runs the world and we teach the importance of being punctual.....teaching not to keep others waiting. We try to teach that it is best to be early than late. I am just talking about the time in our day that just really doesn't need to be rushed.

And all of these thoughts today have come from the image of this tiny little stopwatch.

Ahh, I am taking the time right now to just stop..............and..................breathe!