Find Time to Live With Sudden Change

The Time Finder with Paula Eder

The way you use your time is the way you live your life.

Home
About

Posted on March 19, 2009, under Time and Values.

Finding time when sudden change hits is a challenge that we all face in our lives at one time or another. In our world today, with 24/7 access to news, we are often reminded of sudden changes in all aspects of our lives, from the economy to natural disasters to wars and political upheavals.

Sometimes we may become numbed to the onslaught of news. And sometimes it breaks through in a personal way, reminding us of how precious and fragile life is. Last night’s news about Natasha Richardson’s death following a skiing accident was such a moment for many.

It is a fact of life that, while we humans are amazingly powerful and resilient creatures, the breath of life is also a fragile and fleeting gift. The tragedy of Natasha Richardson’s death touches us all because it reminds us that our lives, too, are fragile and fleeting.

We needn’t take that knowledge and live in fear. Instead, I suggest using it as a base for making choices and looking at personal values and priorities. Here’s a wonderful poem by Mary Oliver (one of my very favorite poets) that I’d like to share with you this morning. It is called “The Summer Day“:

Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean-
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down-
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don’t know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?

How have you dealt with the sudden changes that have come your way in life? How have those experiences changed your perspective and your choices? I’d love to hear about your experiences and ideas!

What if you could find another hour every day? You can! For more Time Finding resources, you are invited to sign up and download The New Finding Time Boundary Template. It’s FREE, and when you sign up you will also receive (if you don’t already) my FREE, weekly Finding Time Tips and my FREE, monthly Award-Winning Finding Time E-zine!

Let’s explore time together …