The Gift of Time

Daylight Saving ended in Sydney this morning. So we wound back our clocks and gained a whole extra hour. Just like that – with a flick of the wrist. Sixty glorious minutes to sleep in, caper with the kids, do those odd jobs you’ve been keeping on the back-burner, call up friends/family you’ve been meaning to...

I made a deliberate decision to slow things down just for today. To live in the moment and savour it. To not sweat the small stuff. To do one task at a time. A hard ask when your life's a rat-race and you're programmed to go, go, go! In the words of W.H. Davies:

What is this life, if full of care
We have no time to stand and stare?

...No time to see, in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars like skies at night.

So we spent a glorious day doing, well, nothing much! When the kiddies woke up, the four of us huddled and cuddled together on our bed, then spent the entire morning at a kids' cafe in Lilyfield (‘Glitterkids’ – with a bouncy castle, no less!). B got to flick through some mags and sip on some chai latte while I was happy to let my kids just BE – not rushing them, not correcting them, not telling them what to do. After all, when you’re given the gift of time, you had better appreciate the “present”.

I’m not naive enough to think the bubble won’t burst. That I can be cool, calm and collected day-in, day-out. I’m sure organised chaos will reign on the school run tomorrow or maybe even at bed-time tonight. But for now, I’m making the most of each minute.

So what did YOU do with your extra hour today? Anything interesting??