Time ... how do you make time? Time is my New Year's Resolution. "Take time out to smell the roses" ... easier said than done. But done it's going to be and I started by recognising what I already do.
Every evening I pour myself a wine, I toast the day that's been and I congratulate myself on not murdering anyone during the previous twenty-four hours. This happens as I prepare my dinner. It's become a habit and I feel a wee bit miffed if, for some reason or another, my appointment with a small glass of wine doesn't occur. It's the habit that enables me the time for daily reflection.
This is the key ... it's a habit. Making time for yourself is priceless and can't be purchased along with our other timesaving commodities. Making, or taking, the time has to become part of the 'routine' ... it has to become just like feeding the chooks.
And so I made a list of the things that make me stop. Moments that make me pause or events that hold me still. A starry night, the new foal next door, the moon when it is full, the first gladioli bloom, the cry of the morepork at dusk, and my list was already starting to show me where my 'habit' needed to begin. Instead of dashing into bed with a hot chocolate, I decided I would take my mug out onto the veranda and spend a few minutes either listening to the night sounds, gazing at the stars, or looking at the garden in the eerie light of the moon.
I tried it last night. A rug left on one of the deck chairs kept me warm and one of the cats joined me as I sat and listened to a remarkable array of audio. The night birds, the sheep in the orchard, Last Thyme in his stable, a hedgehog shuffling across the lawn, and even a distant neighbour feeding his dogs and putting them into their kennels. I came back inside with all of the day's junk emptied out of my head and I decided that this nocturnal meeting with myself must also become an established habit because getting to sleep last night took no time at all.
