Where did the time go?

I published my last post in March 2017. I had to reset my password to write the one you are reading now. 2017. I didn’t write anything in over three years.

They say time flies when you’re having fun. But time also flies when you’re cleaning dirty noses, wiping sticky fingers, mopping the kitchen floor to get rid of that glass of milk that ‘just dropped’. Of course it doesn’t fly while you’re doing all these things. But across the accumulation of all these micro particle-sized, recurring tasks, time flies. Precisely because they are so repetitive. Did I actually pack the lunch box? Is it Wednesday? Exactly.

Confetti time individually is, well, tiny, but together it morphs into a drawn out blur of ‘trying to catch up’ with tasks piling up (or dishes). That makes the years fly by.

The days are long, but the years are short.

The first time I read this sentence was long before little people entered into my life. I just didn’t get it. Surely the years are longer than the days? Boy was I naïve.

Raising children is the most rewarding, and most nerve-wracking thing on earth. It also means that there’s an endless stream of ‘urgent’ things. ‘Things’, of course, mostly meaning things to do.

And they get done, because they are pressing, even if it’s mostly the little people who think these issues need resolving right here and now.

In everyday life, the urgent things get done. Not necessarily the important ones.

When children, work and sleep pretty much take up all of your time, how do you make room for other things, such as writing? Creativity? I’ve spent a lot of time reading books written by time-management gurus. They are packed with useful, hands-on tips on how to incorporate things into your daily life, and how to streamline the rest.

But it’s not about time. It’s about the mind set. It’s all in the head.

I just sat down to write this. I could have been reading the news or aimlessly browsing the web instead, after a long day of all the things that, well, just happen during an ordinary day. Like I did on all these other evenings between March 2017 and today.

How are you navigating priorities and what’s caused a shift in mind set for you?

I hope you’re still with me, after all these years.