About Time

I wasn’t planning on writing this morning, but my WordPress Reader was full of inspirational writing posts (thank you!), so here I am. The floors are covered in books and blocks, little fuzzies, and bread crusts, which is what I should be attending to. But my biggest bear is playing make believe and wants to be alone; my middlest bug is at the grocery story with his daddy; and my littlest birdie is babbling in her swing, on her way to a nap. Everyone will be home all day today and this opportunity probably won’t present itself to me again, so I’m seizing this one. Floors be damned.

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I spent about six minutes writing the above paragraph this morning before my biggest bear came in and asked me to play a game while my littlest birdie started to make it clear that she was not, in fact, going to take a nap. So I sighed. Huffed and puffed a little bit. Then I saved this draft and closed Chrome.

I brought the baby downstairs and the three of us played for a few minutes, which completely satisfied Bear. Then I strapped Birdie into the carrier and cleaned up the floors – oh my goodness – I love how freshly vacuumed floors look. And during that time, I thought about the movie that Matt and I watched last night.

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It was called About Time and was about a man, Tim, who has the ability to time travel. He uses it in ways that you’d expect of any young guy, to avoid really embarrassing situations or get the girl that he’s after. There were several points that were really very funny. (Caution: there are spoilers below!)

This skill is passed to all of the men in his family. His own father, the funny and adorable Bill Nighy, has the same ability. After a cancer diagnosis, time traveling becomes a way for Tim to visit his beloved father even after he’s gone. It’s during one of those visits that his dad shares his own secret for a happy life, and let me tell you, it just makes perfect sense.

And guess what? It totally ties in with my word of the year AND the beginning of this post, if you can believe that. Tim’s dad basically advises him to pay attention to those moment in the day when you feel yourself tightening or becoming aggravated. And instead: soften. Allow yourself to pause, see the absurdity or the humanity of the moment, and remember that you’re alive and that this is life.

So: PAUSE. Allow for some grace. Remember that we only get one life and that we probably don’t want to spend it huffy and mad all of the time, even when things don’t go our way.

And of course, during Tim’s very last visit with his dad, they both travel back in time to when Tim was a young boy and they enjoy one last frolic on the beach together. Because that was the moment they wanted to relive. Maybe one day, Bear will wish he could relive some of the times that we rolled around on the floor and played silly games. Or sat with the baby and made funny sounds and read crazy books.

I know I sure will.