Lent Day 22: It's About Time

It's 9:14 as I type this.  Or with the mental games I've been playing all week it's 10:14, in preparation for Daylight Savings Time.

In a way I should be happy about this, because the evenings will last longer, plus the days are getting longer.  It's a been a long, cold winter, and any herald of Spring and new life should bring the reaction of relief and whole lot of welcome.

But the older I get the more I wonder about the wisdom of arbitrarily (although in a coordinated fashion) changing the rhythm Mother Nature provides.  It's not that I'm such a nature freak that we shouldn't change anything, but there is something to be said about conducting our lives in concert with the cues nature sends.

Despite my alarm clock (which is on my iPhone so it keeps the same alarm despite Standard or Savings Time, and adapts for traveling into different time zones) going off at the same time for the past half year, I've been waking up before it, because of the slow glow of the increasingly earlier sunrises and more importantly, the birds I hear chirping and calling.  And in the span of one day I'll be awakened by the same alarm because the birds don't honor Daylight Savings Time.

I'm a bit more respectful about circadian rhythms than a year ago because of the three visits to my mom's ranch our family has made since then.  Although somewhat rustic, there's now satellite-delivered internet, but no satellite TV.  Evening activities are reading, music (pre-recorded or supply your own), or discussion... a bit old school but kind of refreshing.  Aside from the electronics we bring (which includes many different forms of electronic entertainment), by the time we retire to our cabin, it's very quiet and the instinct is to go to sleep.  And then wake up with the birds and other wildlife, and of course the sun.

So as I sit in my living room banging away on the laptop in the electric and electronic glow that marks my residence as being part of "civilization" I wonder how much God laughs at the way we bend time to our own uses, and what all of our time-manipulating means in the context of God's time.  It's no accident that this year I have finally started writing regularly in a blog; I am beginning to feel the urgency of the time I have remaining.  I've always wanted to write but was lacking in discipline.  There's so much I want to say and share, mostly with my kids.  I see them, one already in the very independent orbit not around our family but the larger one with her friends.  I don't begrudge her that; I remember fondly that time in my life... but in NY state that didn't happen until senior year.  And the other child is on the verge of independence, so I savor the time that he wants to converse with me, or our nightly games of chess.  It won't be long until he's in an outer orbit, and as a dear friend said to me last week:  "our (the parents) social life is spent mostly at home, because we want to be around for a 'John' (their son) sighting."

So with all the stuff I want to share with my kids, even if we had the time and opportunity for me to talk about 'things' I'm pretty sure they don't want to talk with me about them now.  That's what I did to my parents (blow off such opportunities) and similarly, all kids do to their parents.  So... I write, mostly for myself... but I hope that it touches others, and especially my own children, someday.


[This blog automatically feeds my Facebook Notes page; click here to see the original blog]