"How we spend our days is of course how we spend our lives. What we do with this hour and that one is what we are doing." - Annie Dillard
The decisions we make each day, each moment, matter.
What do our lives look like when we think about our time in this way?
Can we actually define ourselves through that habit we keep saying we’ll get to…but never actually put into practice?
I have to remind myself, to be an active person, that means choosing movement. To be a healthy eater, it means paying attention to what I consume and why.
To be an advocate and ally for human rights, it means making time regularly to learn and support.
To see myself as someone who promotes self-care and reflection and awareness for myself and others, I need to infuse that into the daily practices I maintain personally and professionally.
It can feel daunting to think of the weight of each day like this, but to live out of alignment with the lives we envision for ourselves is even more devastating.
How sad to think of spending our lives not taking care of ourselves, putting things off for one day, some day, when those days are the compilation of our lives. It makes me think of the small and intentional ways we can construct our days to ensure what we do feels meaningful.
The value of taking time to rest can exist alongside the value of taking time to work. Taking time and energy to make conscious decisions about what we eat, how we talk to ourselves and others, how we tend to our bodies, it all becomes part of the enriched dialogue of what makes our time matter.
Thinking about our time in this way broadens the language we can use to express the value of our choices. The value of taking time to rest can exist alongside the value of taking time to work. Taking time and energy to make conscious decisions about what we eat, how we talk to ourselves and others, how we tend to our bodies, it all becomes part of the enriched dialogue of what makes our time matter.
Right now, I’m being particularly conscious of the time I spend feeling joy and gratitude. The world feels very heavy, and finding connection through stories and ideas and art has made all the difference for how I’m spending my days and experiencing my life.
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