By Shae Hadden
Bio

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As the evenings get cooler and days shorter here, summer holidays wind
down. Everyone seems to be preparing for the start of September, and
looking forward to the last real weekend before things start up again.
Most everyone I talk with has enjoyed some of the summer outside with
family and friends, and I find myself experiencing a twinge of regret.
For me, the last few months have been a blur of work indoors in front
of the computer, interspersed with a few brief moments of relaxation.
This afternoon, I am acknowledging that I have ‘missed’ this summer
altogether in my efforts to fulfill as many of my commitments as
possible.

I
am reminded, once again, that we cannot ‘give our best’ day in and day
out unless we also give to ourselves. And sometimes the best we gift we
can offer ourselves is a new perspective on time. For the point of view
I have held until now (that time is a precious resource that I don’t
have enough of), has left me drained and unsatisfied. I wonder what
happened to unprogrammed time to relax and smell the roses, to be in
the company of good friends and family, to enjoy the simple pleasures
of life like sunshine, fresh air, strolling through a park or lazily
reading a novel at the beach…

So today, in the midst of all my
‘incomplete’ commitments, I am looking at my relationship to time as a
choice. Instead of seeing it as a vacuum to be filled with tasks, I see
it as something I can play with. I am not its captive—and neither am I
a captive of my commitments. I am time’s playmate, and I choose to
dance lightly in the forest watching the sun set in ‘quiet celebration’
of being alive.

I invite all of you to join me in re-committing
to smelling the roses if you haven’t lately and to sharing the joy and
happiness with others if you have. I always need to remind myself that
life is about the journey and not the destination. If I don’t practice
this now, I will be either too tired or too much of a workaholic to
know how to begin taking care of me when I retire.