Just Enough Time

Tonight I had intended to stop off at the Barnes and Noble and work on the laptop, but I had a couple of errands to run first. When I stopped by a friend's house to drop off something I'd borrowed, she and I ended up talking for a couple of hours, and by then, Barnes and Noble was closed. I think the conversation was something we both needed, and I think it helped us both in different ways. I'm glad it happened, even though I didn't do the writing I intended. I've been aware lately of how much we as humans get trapped by the clock and by schedules. I know that to some extent, schedules are necessary, but on the other hand, they can serve to limit what we can accomplish, and they can also contribute to our becoming inflexible. Had I stuck to my planned schedule, I might have gotten a lot more writing done tonight. But I also wouldn't have had a chance to talk to a friend who needed a willing ear.

I've read some helpful books recently that said just proceeding with the confidence that you will manage to meet all your responsibilities and the necessary things will get done helps in overcoming a dependence on the clock. They said that one day soon, humans will realize that we've completely mistaken the very meaning of time. I hope that's true. Time is something I never seem to have enough of, and I'm constantly having to neglect one thing to accomplish another. Wouldn't it be nice to be able to stretch time so that everything gets done and stress and performance pressure becomes a distant memory?

Then there's the fact that sometimes just a little time spent at something is enough. I did manage to write for twenty minutes or so. I got one paragraph written and ate dinner at the same time. Not much writing progress...or was it? It might only have been one paragraph, but it was the paragraph that helped me figure out how the scene needed to end, and the one that set things up perfectly for my next writing session. Given the results, I'd say that even if it wasn't as much time as I'd planned, for tonight it was just enough time to make a difference.