A snippet of a scene - probably no more than a few seconds - from the classic film, Gone With The Wind, features a sundial at John Wilkes' plantation with a saying from Benjamin Franklin, "Do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of."
Was I in 8th grade or younger when I first saw GWTW? Whenever it was, those few seconds stayed with me, touching but never quite connecting with something rooted in my very tissues.
While I can't say that I was raised to squander time, it's true that I wasn't raised to make good use of it. Which is a pity, because having a healthy respect for time and the companion ability to make judicious use of it seems to me two things every child needs to succeed in life. Didn't get it as a child, wasn't encouraged to develop it as an adult.
Praise be & forever thanks to All That Is for the fact that a desire to master both of those qualities - respect for & good use of time - appears to be part of my "original working parts." Explains why that smidgen of a segment of celluloid made a lasting impression on my elementary school mind & heart.
In Finding Flow, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi notes that, "To live in time means to experience - through doing, feeling, thinking. Experience take place in time, so time is the ultimate scarce resource we have."
So many people spend the majority of their time pursuing things that have to do with their physical well-being, but which might annihilate their spirit, diminish if not outright squash their individuality, their innate creativity.
Was I blessed or cursed with parents who believed it more important to seek & find our True North self than to make bringing in the biggest, best income our top priority? Mind you, neither of them was adverse to making a good income, as long as the work was itself fulfilling.
Impractical? So it might seem to many. But my father created a business based on that principle, a business that was just beginning to fully thrive when he died at 62. He was already a success in my mind, since the overwhelming majority of businesses fail within five years of their start up. Not Dad - he made an income that supported his family, allowed him to hire full-time staff (including my brother) & even permitted him to take Mom on some romantic get aways, all while doing work that nurtured his spirit.
Neither my oldest brother nor my sister chose traditional career paths. While I honestly can't say I understand some of the choices they've made or paths they've taken, I know that some of my own friends are askance at career choices I've made through the years. Only they can know the whys of their choices, but I suspect they hark back to Mom & Dad instilling in us a driving desire to define & find our True North.
One thing I've discovered over the past 11 years is that if we embrace the promise that "the LORD will provide," it's more important than ever that we do all WE can to clear out whatever might block OUR reception. All That Is didn't create the concept of time - that's a human artifice - but BP (beyond pronoun) did create our energies, our ability to prioritize, to set our hand to the plow, our shoulder to the wheel, to experience.
Which brings me back to Franklin (and John Wilkes), admonishing me to not squander time, and to Mihaly Csikszentmihaly for pointing out that "to live in time means to experience."
Even though Time & I haven't partnered well in the past - due to my woeful state of deactivated thinking - we are reconciled & pledged to work together in the past. The fault is not Time's - Time has always been available, always been eager to be engaged in pursuits to bring rewards (yes, Gremmie, with resulting celebrations of many sorts). I've been the slug-a-bed.
Experience is real. It happens within the construct of time, which is an appearance. I really want to make excellent use of time so that I can rack up splendid experiences that develop my mind, expand my creative capacity, attracts interesting work, uplifts the spirit ~ AND ~ provides a healthy income.
Hmmm... Is that perhaps the greatest way I can honor my father & my mother?
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