Fig Jam and Lime Cordial

Years ago, a friend gave me some life changing advice.  He said, “time is yours, Celia, and only you can manage it”.  I’d been working in a  very stressful job and was feeling overwhelmed by a looming deadline.  He was right, of course, we’re all given the same 24 hours a day and the process we call “living” is about figuring out what we’re going to do with those hours.

Lately, friends have been lamenting to me about their lack of time.  I know exactly how they feel -  I’ve had months, occasionally years, where life has been brutally busy and I’ve felt like it was impossible to come up for air.  What I’ve come to realize is this: you have to find time for yourself first.  Be it just half an hour a day, in between working and feeding the kids and cleaning the bathroom, you need to find some time to look after your own needs, do something you enjoy and feed your soul.  And you need to schedule it in to do every day, because if you don’t, time will just sift through your hands like sand.  It’s a bit like the advice they give you when you board a plane – fix your own oxygen mask first, before helping children -  because if you can’t breathe, you won’t be able to look after anyone else.  I plan for at least an hour a day where I can consciously do something which makes me happy, and actively try to enjoy and be aware of every minute of it.

I think sometimes as a species we lose perspective on why we’re here.  We rush around madly trying to jam as much as we possibly can into a 24 hour day and as a result forget to enjoy the time we’re given. I hope you all find some time today to do something that brings you joy. Remember, time is yours, and only you can manage it!

All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.

Gandalf  -  JRR Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring (1974).