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Scattered Time?

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Column: Something About Nothing, by Julie Seedorf

“Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you.” — Carl Sandburghttp://time photo: Time Time.gif

Have you heard the words, “I am in a time crunch?” How often during the day do you take a little time to do something fun, but feel guilty because of all the things that are running through your mind that you have to do?

I read an article recently in Redbook by Brigid Schulte. Schulte did a study on time and found that there was leisure time in her day that she hadn’t considered. A phone conversation with a friend, a cup of coffee in the middle of the morning or listening to the radio before we get out of bed can all be considered leisure time.

According to Schulte, the problem with this leisure time is the fact that when we are taking this leisure time, our brains are always looking on to the many tasks ahead. We are multitasking leisure time by running this to-do list though our heads and not relaxing.

I can resonate with that. I was used to fitting in my writing while I was doing something else, now that writing is my career, I feel guilty. It makes me anxious sitting and concentrating on one task. I feel there is something else I should be doing. I have lived the multitask life for so long it feels lazy to do one thing at a time.

Schulte points out that we need to look at our conversations. The Christmas letters I write are about our busy life. If I look at the ones I receive, they say the same thing. When we have conversations with our friends, our busy life is the topic. I wonder what would happen if I would answer the question: What have you been doing? with the answer: I have been so lazy.

What kind of reaction would I get? Being busy peppers our conversations. Is it a contest to see who can be the busiest because we don’t want to be known as a slacker?

We all know busy people and have busy friends. These people seem to love their life and are involved in many charitable activities that benefit others. That is a good thing if they are happy with their lives. Do we do things and keep ourselves busy because we feel the need to be busy? Or do we stay busy so we won’t be seen as slacking off and not doing our part in a busy society?

Do men feel that busy crunch? Redbook is a woman’s magazine but according to Schulte, men feel they deserve the leisure time while women feel they have to earn it. I wonder if our busy life is because we feel we have to live up to others expectations.

I too have a hard time quieting my mind. I decided to try an experiment. I downloaded an app called Insight Timer on my phone. It is a meditation app. The app chimes a tone when it starts, I chose 10 minutes and it chimes a tone when the 10 minutes are up.

The first time I used the app my mind was racing on all of the things I had to do for the day. Ten minutes seemed long. It was hard to quiet my mind, to let it go to thinking about nothing. The next couple of days the time flew by. It was amazing. I was finally able to settle to mush in my brain. At the end of the 10 minutes, the creativity flowed and the tenseness left my body. There was something about that chime that relaxed my mind the minute I heard it.

I loved the above quote by Carl Sandburg. Occasionally, even in our work situations and home situations, we do have some control over our time. Perhaps it is a state of mind. Stopping the running list in our minds when we are supposed to have leisure time, may give us a little more peace and energy when we tackle the actual to do list.

Let the mind rest for a few moments. Those moments rest might give us hours of rejuvenation.

Who is controlling your time? Or maybe the question should be: Who, or what, is controlling your thoughts? Or perhaps the most important question is: How is your busy life affecting your health?

By the way, I have been so lazy.

The article mentioned above by Brigid Schulte can be read in the March 2014 Redbook. It is titled “Desperate For More Time?”

Imagine Love Over The Course of 98 Years.

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Something About Nothing, by Julie Seedorf in the Albert Lea Tribune February 10, 2014

“Image what these 98-year-old eyes have seen.” holding hands photo: gero hands hands.jpg

Those words, spoken in a sermon during a funeral for a friend’s mother, gave me pause to reflect on what this woman had seen during her lifetime. It isn’t often we think of that when someone we love has died. Of course we reminisce about the person’s past, their accomplishments, what they loved, and how they lived, but for some reason when I heard this sentence the thought that came to my mind was love. Pretending to look through her eyes as I looked at family pictures, I saw love.

This is February and the week of Valentine’s Day. You might wonder what a funeral and someone’s death has to do with a day that is filled with hearts, flowers, declarations of love and clever advertising. The day is commercially about all of the glitzy, outer trappings, but what a better day to think about the love that we receive through our lifetime.

What better day to reminisce about those who have shown us love and that we have loved, that are here today and that we have known in the past.

Valentine’s Day is my favorite holiday, not because I get so many Valentines, but because the day seems to bring out the best in people.

Recently I interviewed someone about the day and they said every day should be Valentine’s Day in the way we show love to people in our lives.

Back to this wonderful 98-year-old woman by the name of Sophia whose funeral I was attending. Looking back through her life I could see that it was her love of God, her love of family and her love of friends, and giving and receiving that love that carried her through her life all those 98 years.

Sophia married young, a man, older than she. Looking at the pictures and talking to her daughters and listening to the stories, you knew that she felt loved. Her life wasn’t always hearts and flowers. She lost two children, her husband, family members and yet her attitude was always encouraging. The love that her husband and those two children gave to her before they died stayed with her even when they were gone.

She helped raise a granddaughter after her daughter died. She had grandchildren. Later when she was no longer able to take care of herself, when she was in her 90s, she entered an assisted-living home. Still her family showed her love and caring by visiting her often and watching out so that she was happy until the final days. They did not forget her. Her sense of humor carried through to the staff and those she met. Pictures told a story of love and you could see the love she showed others even in her later years with sense of humor and the kindness she showed to those who took care of her.

What did those 98-year-old eyes see? They saw many changes in the world. They saw sorrow, heartache and happiness.

Sophia is not unlike many of us today. What do our eyes see each day? At the end of our lives what will our eyes have seen? Will we remember special Valentines Days? Maybe. Will we remember the glitz and the glam and the show? Will we remember what meal we ate when we were wined and dined by our sweetheart? Will we remember disappointment because no one remembered us on Valentine’s Day? Or will we remember the feeling of love throughout moments of our lives?

We get hyped up about this one day, Valentine’s Day, the day we take to show someone how special they are. Some people get romantic and some people get forgotten all together. It is good we do have a day like this to remind us to treat someone we love with a little special care because perhaps some people don’t think about it the rest of the year.

There are people, and I used to be one of those, that are very hurt and sad if this special day passes and they feel alone. If that is the case I want you to think about that statement; imagine what these 98-year-old eyes have seen. What will your eyes have seen over your lifetime? Think about the love that you have shown or been shown by others on a normal day throughout the year. Find the “love moments” in your life and remember them. Think about the love moments, or hours, or days that you have had.

Those 98-year-old eyes saw a lot of sorrow. Our eyes do, too. But in sad times, find the Valentine moments of love that you can cherish and remember your entire life. Love isn’t pinned to a specific day; it is pinned to the shadows of your heart for you to pull out when needed to make those dark days feel better.

Happy Valentine’s Day.

“Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.” — Lao Tzu

 

Revive The Greeting Card!

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Column: Something About Nothing, by Julie Seedorf printed in the Albert Lea Tribune February 3.

The United States Postal Service is raising its rates. It is partly my fault. The reason I partially blame myself is that I am memory-challenged when remembering to send people cards for birthdays, Christmases, baby births and times of illness, sympathy and friendship.

I like to get the cards. I keep the people in my prayers and always have good intentions but never seem to get it done.

This is not something new that has developed since I have become an adult. When I was in grade school and high school, I would write letters to my aunts and uncles and cousin but they would never get mailed. When they came to visit and occasionally their visits were yearly, I would hand deliver the letters to them.

This is my greeting card showing greeting cards.
This is my greeting card showing greeting cards.

There is one problem, and that is the fact that I love to buy greeting cards, and I love to make greeting cards. I must have a problem with that in many areas of my life since I love cookbooks and recipes but don’t like to cook. Maybe it is the author in me that likes to see things in print.

Since I am changing careers I need to readjust and change out my office so I can work more efficiently with my new writing career. It is amazing the joy it creates when you find an object that you have been looking for. In the midst of the mess I found so many greeting cards. As I looked and sorted the beautiful cards in to categories I wondered how in the world I ever accumulated so many cards. Then I felt a little sad that I never sent the cards to the people they were meant for.

Some of the cards that I found were perfect for someone in their young adult years, but the person that I had in mind when I bought the card is no longer a young adult, in fact they might be called a senior citizen now.

In my meandering of thoughts it crossed my mind that greeting cards are probably obsolete too or they will be soon. I hope not. History is represented in greeting cards. I have the Valentine cards that my mom got when she was young. I have the Valentines that my parents gave me when I was young, and when I read them it brings tears and good memories to my heart.

I am de-cluttering, but there are some things that are keepers in my heart, and those are the Valentines of my youth. The birthday cards from certain people from my youth that I still have. It is the Christmas cards, not all but some, that I have kept over the years from people that I miss because they are living with God now. Those cards give me comfort, make me smile, occasionally make me cry and bring back memories.

My mother never threw anything out, and I was very vocal in letting my opinion be known. There are items that did not need to be kept, and I would still be vocal about them if she were here. She was a child of the Great Depression, and that made her at times hoard things.

When it was time for me to go through her things I found the treasure of her youth. I found a scrapbook she had made of old Valentines. I found cards and letters of sympathy from my dad’s funeral. I hadn’t paid much attention then to all the cards and letters of caring he received when he was sick and when he died. Reading them twenty years later as an adult made me appreciate the impact he had on people’s lives. I would have never had known that.

As I look at the cards, the many, many cards, I have in my stash to send to people I made a decision. This year I will try over the year to mail every single card that I have to someone. As crazy as it may seem, I might send a Christmas card in July. I am not going to pay attention to season but I will pay attention to the get-well and sympathy cards and make sure they go to the right place at the right time. Sending a sympathy card could get a little tricky if the person were still alive, though many years ago when my uncle’s favorite team, the Los Angeles Dodgers, lost the World Series, I felt it did warrant a sympathy card. I was sure my uncle mourned for the next year about that.

Will I live up to my new resolution? It’s not a New Year’s one. Join me in sending cards to friends, family and strangers this year. It may change their day, it may make them smile and … it might keep the Postal Service in business. Challenge your friends. Let’s start a card revolution in 2014.

I have started a page on Facebook called “Revive the Greeting Card.” Hopefully it will help me in my resolve to send out greeting cards. Hopefully the members of the group will keep me on task.

If you are a Facebook person look for the page “Revive the Greeting Card “and join us. Take the time this year to send some greetings to someone, it may change their day.