Time Enough

(Since this is a post about time, and in the interest of being efficient with mine this morning, I'm reaching back into an archive of my first blog; this particular post is from June 2009.)

I recently read that if we change our relationship to time, we will realize we have enough of it. How do we go about that? I wonder. It seems I’m in the midst of that particular dance now that I invest my days with my daughter. At three-and-a-half months of age, she is unpredictable, without schedule, demanding that I be present in the moment NOW. To do this, I can no longer linger at my computer, working on an academic article in four-hour blocks. When she falls asleep in the mornings, if I’m not needing a nap myself, I hop to the computer for twenty? thirty? sixty? minutes of work. At first, I thought I wouldn’t be able to shift my thinking quickly enough, that I wouldn’t have enough time to go deeply enough to do the kind of thinking such writing demands. But this morning, in thirty minutes, I made enough head-way on the article at hand that I feel close to finishing...likely sometime this week. And, surprise of all surprises, Vee has been sleeping this afternoon for nearly three hours! (Yes, she’s breathing; I checked.) I’ve had time aplenty to start dinner, crochet, dabble with the article again, and write this blog entry. My time is invested differently now, and it comes in shorter blocks, but today I find that by changing my relationship with it, I do indeed have time enough.

*********

It is particularly fitting that I remember this now that Vee is 10-months old and more active then ever. Sleep is still not a predictable time when I'm guaranteed to have my hands free, but lately Vee has been napping much better without me nearby (two hours on Tuesday, and I'm certain yesterday's nap would have been equally long if not for the FedEx man). Since I am back to teaching at the university, I'm catching moments when and where I can to do what needs to be done, and I'm savoring each and every one with her.