So the other Monday, I found myself running around the house sucking down my morning cup of coffee and rushing through my icy morning shower to go and plan with a professor. The boys at my old host family’s house had broken my bike again. So, I was going to take off on foot.
This week, I was changing my routine and starting to plan with my professor on Monday mornings. This means a 20 minute walk first thing to her house in a nearby community, then taking a bus to a pueblo an hour away, teaching class all afternoon at the high school, then briskly walking to make it to my women’s math class at the community center. Finally, I catch the six o’clock bus back. Get home at seven and plan with another teacher for Tuesday’s classes until eight. This is my Monday.
I’ll admit, this morning, I sure had a case of the Mondays. I had had a long weekend and was wondering how I was going to get through the day because I was having a hard time shaking some recent events.
I guess I was completely in my own head. I passed the loud primary school with teachers yelling over the students and didn’t seem to notice that I almost tripped on a rock on the path. I looked up to see Señor Guillen. I’d been friends with his family, gone milking cows with his sons, and we often would see eachother around town and wave. He looked especially “elegante” or sharp this day complete with a freshly ironed button-down, cowboy boots, and a cowboy hat. Seemed that he’d just been taking a stroll, visiting family or gone to talk business with somebody about land- who knows?
He obviously could sense the hurried nature of my clumsy steps. And per usual, we did the whole “hola, buen día, cómo ameneció..” thing. He stopped and began to ask me how things had been and how the island was treating me. I said something about being late for a meeting as I was still about a 15 minute walk away from my professor’s house. He then said the most beautiful thing to me.
“cuando hay amor, hay tiempo por todo.”
“when there is love, there is time for everything.” I thanked him and continued on the walk. If anything, a lot more in my head than before.
Time has been a reoccurring “issue” for volunteers in the Peace Corps. I spend more time either waiting for the bus.. Or running after it in my daily life than anything else.
After a year and three months, I still sometimes am baffled and feel like I am in that scene in Love Actually where Mr. Bean is wrapping up the Christmas present.. Anyone get that reference?
I find myself almost two weeks later still thinking about this. Don’t know what it is, but that wise Señor Guillen must have been reading my mind.
As we have “progressed” or “developed” in a “western” society we have begun to try and manipulate time. We attempt cut the time it takes to do anything in half and pride ourselves on how efficient we can do a task. We try to cram one more thing on our to-do list for the day and feel a sense of guilt if we have the time to take a 30 minute nap after lunch. We tend to evaluate and measure ourselves based on the amount that is accomplished in one day.
We can get into talks of why this perhaps makes the US and other Asian countries, who have this ingrained in their cultures, the “worlds economic powers” all day... But many times we look past the negative externalities that are created as a result.. especially within our relationships with eachother.
Note: I am not in any way exempting myself from these observation. I am just as guilty as the next guy.
These days, time has become the all-encompassing excuse. We tell ourselves that we don’t have time to do the things that we really want to do. But, we also tell others we don’t have the “time” to spend with them. Over time, we lose touch because life gets busy and we don’t have time to catch up. And, because time has become the ultimate and accepted excuse for everything, we don’t really question it.
As said, when there is love, there is time for everything. And, yes, we are all busy.
Time is an excuse. And excuses are made most likely because you really don’t want to do something. However, if you want something bad enough, forget about the time piece and go for it.
Love is so much more powerful than time, and I am not really sure when we got that backwards. I am not just talking about intimate love, I am also talking about passion and what makes all of us tick and truly happy. If you want to sit on the porch in a rocking chair and read a book, make it happen. And, before you open you mouth next time and tell someone that you don’t have time.. Just don’t. That is a pretty hurtful thing to say to both yourself and to someone else. If you want something, you make it happen. If that takes reevaluating your true intentions or re-prioritizing your time, so be it.
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