time

It's a long weekend and it feels like early Christmas. Free time is hard to come by these days. For awhile I was resenting other people's free time and what they did in it, or rather the lack of what they did in it. Fellow students at school would talk about how they watched T.V. instead of studying or went to the bar and I would get so exasperated, thinking you are absolutely squandering all that free time! What I wouldn't give for that time! But I do have free time, I just have less than some, but still more than others and maybe it's in smaller pockets rather than hours at a time. Being very busy has made me appreciate the moments I have more than I used to. If traffic is good and I get home 15 minutes early I can have a tea with Adrien before I leave for kung fu and he leaves for work... 15 minutes didn't used to seem like much but now it's like a little oasis in the desert. Taking an extra 10 minutes to say goodnight to the kids and talk about their concerns at the end of the day allows us to reconnect and feel close, and I feel recharged enough to keep my nose in the books a little longer. Losing most of my leisure time has improved the quality of the time I do have, so no matter how busy we get, because it seems like we're all running all the time, take your 5 minutes and really enjoy it and don't think about what is going to happen after that 5 minutes- take it and get the most out of it because you've earned it.

Andrea Prince