If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
I often find myself longing for “an hour for me.” I have written before about how it is easy to miss that we have more of things we want in life than we may realize. This morning was NOT good. After a night of fitful sleep (my subconscious working out some nastiness) I awoke to a myriad of Murphy filled occurrences that left me cranky, irritable and all around resentful of people and their lack of consideration.
I fought it as much as possible but I felt as if at every turn I was literally running into problems. Everything from a road closure to almost knocking an entire pitcher of water on the floor it was one of those mornings where you wondered-when will it end?! All of this happened before my morning coffee.
I decided upon arriving back home to take time in my office to sit with a cup of coffee, relax, and take some time for me. My daughter had some other ideas however and we played for a bit before her nap. After laying her down I contemplated some housework that needed doing and then decided, no, I will go back to what I was trying to do. As I sat down at my laptop I remember thinking, “I just wish I had an hour for me.” As luck would have it-I did.
The real question in all of this is what do we do with the moments life gives us? What if, when I asked for an hour, I was given 25 minutes? Are we that rigid, that inflexible that we cannot be appreciating of the 25 minutes we did receive? And how were those minutes spent? Did we stare at the clock? Feel guilty over the laundry that needed folding or the report that I could be working overtime on? It makes me wonder how many beautiful moments are lost to us because they came wrapped in paper when we expected a gift bag.
I wrote a poem yesterday that echoes the thoughts above. No matter how hard I tried this morning my body was physically unwilling to yield and bend and flow and instead preferred to remain trapped in its anger, self-pity and complete judgment of the situation and all involved. It happens, and it happens often. And when it happens I will long for a break, a moment where I can just sit and focus on something I love, something that sparks my creativity or to just close my eyes and daydream. And while I may be craving an hour I may only be able to steal away 5 minutes-and yet those 5 minutes are a gift in themselves.
Below is the poem I wrote. Hope you enjoy it and I hope you have a beautiful day!
Tunnel Visions
Dreams dance around
on dewdrops and rain
While we wait and wonder
when the sun will shine again
Looking towards a starry sky
for answer to our woes
And as we wait we fail to feel
the grass beneath our toes
And when we have our eyes
focused only on the sun
We have no vision there to see
the life that we have won
A smile and a moment
both fleeting and magically grand
Rests in our awareness
to love what’s within our hand
A breath in and a sigh out
we move so fast we blur
Laden down with all our stuff
always wishing for what we were
Thinner, taller, shorter, smarter
with more money in our hand
To buy more things we’ll never see
and appreciate not our beauty filled land
Copyright 2011 Michele Fischer
Thank-you Michelle, just what I needed today, as I sit here, about to whine to myself about how I have not gotten anything done today- then remember: those precious moments inbetween listening to my child sing, watching my other one listen intently at Remembrance Day assembly, and the laughter filled run to and from school at lunch with my youngest. It certainly puts it all in perspective!
Petrea thank you! It is so easy to miss the moments that really are what life is! Thanks for reading!
I have a huge problem with the amount of free time I do get – the feeling of "this isn't enough" keeps me from enjoying it when I have 10 minutes with nothing pressing. The evil little part of my brain reminds me that in 11 minutes, I have something to do and I best be ready. There are two little mantras that have helped me bust out of this habit (and out of getting tunnel vision in other ways): 1) This moment, only once, and 2) There is so much more than we perceive. Both of these saying jolt me outside of my little bubble when I remember them, allowing me to put things into perspective. So helpful!
Love the poem. Several wonder-full images as well as the total idea. Lay out is lovely as well. I have a magnet on the fridge that says:
"If I'm not
happy
in this time,
this place,
I'm not paying attention"
Jodi Hills
I have found that it is ego trying to run/ruin my life when I get into these crazy fits (and We all do too often) but just catching yourself like you did helps. Jodi Hills is an artist/poet whom you may like from Michigan I believe. I have acouple of books by her. Google her.
A haiku I wrote –
busy day
if not for the wild phlox
this moment lost
Great blog. Thx. Andrea
Gratitude for every little thing that happens right in our lives is so important.
Ellie-I love that "this moment, only once." So simple, so powerful! Thanks for reading!
Andrea,
Thank you so much for the kind words and for the recommendation-I will look into her! I love the haiku as well-beautiful!
Robyn you are so right-thank you for visiting!
Whoa, Michele, both your message and your poem are so powerful! I was just thinking about this today – I am often really sad at work because I work in an unsocial office, and I'll wish that my boss would just hire someone so I could have someone to talk to. I'll spend so much time bemoaning that that I won't write back to friends who are reaching out to me on email throughout the day. Thank you for the synchronistic blog post, clearly I need a reminder to widen my tunnel vision. 🙂
Marla I am so happy this post resonated with you! Thank you for your kind words about my poem-it is so easy for us to get caught up in our tunnel vision isn't it? Thank you for your post!