AYLMER, QUEBEC | The most important thing we each own . . . is our time. It is important because what we do with our time is who we are; it is our essence; it creates us. If we throw our time away, we toss ourselves away, at least we throw away the project of creating who we are. We are not the same persons today that we were as children. How we arrived at this new, today's person depends on how we spent our time getting to today.

I'm sorry to belabor that point, but it seems we waste almost all of the time we have, myself definitely. At first I thought we didn't value our time, or perhaps we thought we had a lot more of it than we do, but it's more likely we waste our time because we don't think about it at all.

We don't stop, very often, and think, wait a minute, why am I doing this? We "just do it." as Nike wants us to. They don't want us to think about anything.

Last week I was introduced to a bird, a cockatiel, who is 72 years old. He was quite spry. He had all his feathers. I considered that a 72-year-old cockatiel has time to burn, as must those turtles who live to reach biblical ages; but length of life is a small part of the whole equation.

What we do with our time is what counts

And we are astounded to learn that some young people have accomplished great things in their short lives. We should, then, be astounded at what most of us don't accomplish. Is it because we don't think about it? Is it because we "just do" what we do without thinking?

The cockatiel, with his high white crown feathers, likely figures we humans don't accomplish much at all. We would admire him, feed him, groom him, if we wanted to accomplish something in life. As it is, we chat to each other and fool around with things or activities which are meaningless. To a cockatiel.

If we thought carefully about what we're doing with our time, we might become immobilized -- or maybe merely sleepy. But we would notice, at least after a few years trying, that our time is worth something. Time is relatively rare, and so it has value. And if it's worth anything at all, why do we give it away so readily, without the slightest objection? Do we not value ourselves?

We give our time away when we let a chatterbox monopolize a conversation, or a family member impose their demands; we give it away listening to someone complain about things well beyond our control. We give our time away in a thousand ways, in anger or jealousy, to a creed, to nursing a grudge, or chewing a bone of any sort.

We give time away.

We give our time -- that is to say, we give away who we are.

We give away our opportunity to create or enrich ourselves, however we each define this process of growth. We give it away . . . every day . . . all day long.

Why?

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Copyright © 2008 Fred Ryan/Log Cabin Chronicles/08.08