{"id":4462,"date":"2024-06-27T18:13:21","date_gmt":"2024-06-27T22:13:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/?p=4462"},"modified":"2024-06-27T18:13:21","modified_gmt":"2024-06-27T22:13:21","slug":"precious-resource","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/index.php\/2024\/06\/27\/precious-resource\/","title":{"rendered":"Precious Resource"},"content":{"rendered":"

As an indie author who also works a day job, I stay busy. All. The. Time. I jokingly say that\u2019s a good thing. That it keeps me out of trouble. But in truth, I often feel overwhelmed with all the \"Womanthings on my to-do list. I race from task to task, careening through each day like I\u2019m hurrying toward some nebulous finish line. As if such a thing wouldn\u2019t be final. The End. (For now.) Each task at work is a problem to be solved. Every step along the way from story concept to first page to publication to marketing is a mile marker. My housekeeping and cooking and cat-care tasks are cyclic goals. Working and writing and the day-to-day crop-ups are endless, never stopping until you cross the Finish Line. That\u2019s why we race. Because somewhere in there, between all the need-to-dos, we hope to squeeze in some want-to-dos. Right?<\/p>\n

The problem, at least for me, is that most days I get so driven to complete one task after another after another that it becomes a habit. If I\u2019m not busy, it feels like I\u2019m shirking. So I jump from one deadline straight into the next and think, \u201cI\u2019ll relax and rest later.\u201d Except \u201clater\u201d never comes. This has been going on for some time now, maybe since 2019 when I decided to write Enthe\u00f3phage. (Oh, who am I kidding? This has been my mindset for many years, with brief respites here and there.)<\/p>\n

Last week, though, the speed of time\u2019s passing smacked me between the eyes like a clue-by-four. Days are whizzing by in a blur and I\u2019m so focused on my latest manuscript or social media or whatever that I\u2019m missing everything else. It\u2019s already the end of June. Sheesh. \"DrawingWasn\u2019t it January just yesterday? I turn around and a week has passed. Or a month. Or a year. Where is it all going?<\/p>\n

I will be 65 this October. There are likely to be fewer years ahead of me than behind me, and that sudden realization of fleeting time struck hard and left me pensive. One thought in particular lingered. Am I using my time in the best way possible? In other words, am I truly doing what makes me happy? Fulfilled? Content?<\/p>\n

My first reaction was, \u201cOf course I am! I\u2019m married to a wonderful partner. I\u2019m writing. I\u2019m publishing. People are reading my stories. I have everything I need, if not everything I *want*.\u201d But I made myself stop and ask again, in a slightly different way. If I could do anything, anything at all with the time I have left, what would it be? Whatever the response, it would determine the course of my life, going forward. After all, time isn\u2019t a renewable resource. Once it\u2019s gone, it never comes again.<\/p>\n

Woah. Deep.<\/p>\n

Even with repeated questions, though, my answer has not changed. If I could do anything, I would write. The only change I\u2019d make is that my works would provide enough income that I could switch to full-time writing. Who knows? Maybe that day is coming. But everything else?<\/p>\n

There are a bazillion little moments that make up the day. Many are often filled with monotony or frustration or annoyance. I push through them all, thinking I just need to “get through this” so that I could get to \u201cthe next thing.\u201d Which is, of course, another goal to be endured so that I can break through to the moments of joy\u2014spending time with B, writing, watching the birds at the feeders.<\/p>\n

But when this sudden awareness of time\u2019s passing struck, something else dawned on me in the way a deep Mystery will (even though it has been staring you in the face for a while).<\/p>\n

This is what Life is. All of it. The good, the bad, the ups, the downs. Making and losing friends, finding joy and feeling despair, comforting and being comforted, the interactions with ourselves and others and the Divine in all its forms, the seconds and minutes and hours and days we spend running errands and feeding our children and overpacking our schedules and working for ourselves or someone else, paying bills and buying treasures, chasing dreams, making plans, time spent alone or with another\u2014all of it. Life isn’t something that happens when ________________ (fill in the blank).<\/p>\n

Life. Is. This. Moment.<\/p>\n

And this one.<\/p>\n

And this one.<\/p>\n

\"ManIt’s everything that happens to us and everything that we want, whether or not we get it. It’s about our dreams and our actions and our intentions and our good deeds and our bad ones as well. The lessons we learn and those we keep needing to repeat. (Like this one.)<\/p>\n

Those in-between moments and experiences have something to teach me. Something I\u2019ve been missing. But even if they don\u2019t, being fully present in each one will at least leave me with a clear memory of their passing, instead of a blur and a breeze as they fly by. Mindfulness like that doesn\u2019t come easily, especially to a mind like this one (pointing at my head), where ideas flit from one thought-flower to the next like a bee collecting pollen. But just as everything else, it is\u2014I am\u2014a work in progress.<\/p>\n

Change is, as Eli (from Fallen) would say. The best time to start is now.<\/p>\n

Image credits:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Busy Professional, Photo by Anna Shvets<\/a> on Pexels.<\/p>\n

Time Flies, Photo by Nick Fewings<\/a> on Unsplash.<\/p>\n

This Head, Photo by Ketut Subiyanto<\/a> on Pexels.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As an indie author who also works a day job, I stay busy. All. The. Time. I jokingly say that\u2019s a good thing. That it keeps me out of trouble. But in truth, I often feel overwhelmed with all the things on my to-do list. I race from task to task, careening through each day…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4462","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog-posts"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8n0kX-19Y","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3120,"url":"https:\/\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/index.php\/2023\/02\/23\/too-many-balls\/","url_meta":{"origin":4462,"position":0},"title":"Too Many Balls","author":"DremaDeoraich","date":"February 23, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Silly me. 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