I sat down to gather my thoughts and share my wisdom and realized humbly and with a tinge of anxiety...I've none to give. I am a master at saying yes to new projects , ideas and people, jumping in with both feet, staying up into the night to finish this, that and the other thing. I have a particularly brilliant flair for creating daily lists with over 20 items to complete...items that take hours of time...but I am no master of time.
So I pondered for the last few days...or decades, just what it would mean to be a master of time. A Master of Time would know how to work each moment efficiently and order activities in the right way so as to stop at all the stores in the string of errands in the right order and then make her way back home. A Master of Time, would know how long it takes to clean up from breakfast and finish coloring the Social Studies project without missing the bus. A Master of Time would arrive at the beginning and stay until the end and still have time to go home and write a reflective synopsis of each class, meeting or workshop. A Master of Time wouldn't leave the Tae Kwon Do uniform in the gym bag on the garage floor and drive off to pick up her son to take him to Tae Kwon Do class. A Master of Time could do it all and still have time for more. At least that was my first thought.
My second thought, the one I am going to go with is that I don't need to be a Master of Time. I will chose to be a Master of Me who doesn't need to do any of that. I don't have to try to master time, but rather to pick moments and live them fully...relish in the journey. I can take time for silence and stillness and centering because there is no need to master time. Time flows on its own, but amidst its river I can sit on a rock and let it flow past as I turn inward for just a moment and assess my own being.
I am not saying I won't say yes to a lot of projects or even that my lists will get any shorter. But if I can stop trying to beat the clock and let the flow wash over my inner core rather than through it, then the next time I bite off more than I can chew...at least I will taste its richness in my mouth and sit down for just long enough to swallow.