All the Time There Is

I remember once reading the observation that, although we complain that there's never enough time, we have all the time there is. That's a fairly deep thought for this early in the morning. But on the subject of having enough time, here's a poem I found online yesterday that I thought was very perceptive ...

Time Enough

by Dennis O'Driscoll

The tally of years
added up so rapidly
it appeared I had
been short-changed,
tricked by sleight
of hand, fallen victim
to false bookkeeping.

Yet when I checked
my records, each
and every year had
been accounted for,
down to the last day,
and could be audited
against old diary entries
(client briefings,
dental check-ups,
parent-teacher meetings,
wedding anniversaries),
verified with credit
card statements
(multi-trip insurance,
antibiotics, concert bookings,
mobile top-ups).

And, although
nagging doubts
remained—an
inkling that I had
been ripped off
in some way,
given short shrift,
made to live at an
accelerated pace,
rushed through
my routines with
unseemly haste—
nothing could be proved,
no hard and fast
statistics adduced.

I had, it seems,
unknown to me,
been living my
life to the full.

I hadn't thought about it before, but there's a difference between filling up your life and living life to the full. There's always something more that needs doing, some chore to accomplish, some unpleasant task to finish. These are the things that fill up your life. On the other hand, we live life to the full when we make the time for things that are fun, that we dream about doing and - sometimes - manage to fit in around the other stuff. There are still plenty of things on my bucket list that I haven't done yet, so I guess I need to get moving. And so should you.

Have a good day. More thoughts tomorrow.

Bilbo