Catching up on reading with a good book. Having a long overdue, bring-you-up-to-speed conversation with a good friend. These are two of my favorite ways to spend any free time I might be fortunate enough to have any given day of the week.
As of late, I recognize that making the most of my time requires a certain amount of openness to a balance between both planning and spontaneity. The past two weeks I actually feel as though I'm making progress in that regard. Today, I actually managed to be both mom and hairdresser, and found time to read and even meet up with a friend I hadn't seen in over a year. Stellar day, for sure.
I realized during tonight's conversation, as mutual friends' names came up, just how much time has gone by in general. Flown by. Years have just streaked by, leaving faint hints and signs that they were ever really part of any timeline, let alone either of ours; just whispers of some random memories, and an occasional solid story that will undoubtedly continue to be relived simply because when it happened, the entire moment absolutely rocked. Those are the stories I love hearing, whether I experienced them firsthand or happen to just be hearing it for the first time.
Maybe this is a bit too deep for a Tuesday night, maybe it's the second gluten free beer I had, I don't know, but reading and conversing seem to be just types of relating and connecting. I suppose, for that matter, so is writing. In a day and age where hearing someone speak, listening to music, watching people on television or online, and even reading the words written by someone you don't know and will not likely ever meet, how is it that we lose touch with the people we do know and can see from time to time? Sure lives change and people grow apart for one reason or another, schedules change and interests fall by the wayside, but how many opportunities do we continue to let slip by to reconnect with a person or pastime before we run out of chances?
I stopped making resolutions a long time ago. While I maintain that approach to any new year, I can't help but wonder at what point in time does it become suitable to make a pledge to myself and my life to do something instead of just 'wish' I could. I imagine that seeing any change or challenge as belonging to a year sort of makes it about a resolution, which in it of itself isn't a bad thing. But perhaps, for me, just deciding on any given day that I will make a real and concerted effort to finally go on that lunch date, actually set a date to go out for drinks, blow off vacuuming or laundry and sit down to finish reading that book, and stop procrastinating about setting a writing schedule for myself, despite whether it's 2014 or 2020 is what makes it a life goal. Positive change born of true effort and the permission to throw off whatever things I've given the power to limit my life.
Though this was like any other day, at any given point, looking back over the course of the last 17 hours, I see it had the perfect combination of routine and spontaneity to produce unexpectedly epic results. Pivotal and inspirational, indeed.
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