“ You get to decide when enough is enough . You get to set the pace for your own life .”
When I talk about time in the years to come , I hope I can say there was always enough of it . It wasn ’ t too short , and it wasn ’ t too fleeting . I didn ’ t try to catch it or bottle it up — I dug my heels down , determined to experience each moment to the fullest . And I watched as my hurried language changed from “ I don ’ t have enough time ” to “ I ’ ve had the great gift of time — and it has been enough for me .”
I don ’ t need to prove that I use my time well anymore . I don ’ t have to wring out every last drop for efficiency or productivity ’ s sake . I don ’ t even have to document all of it . I know the hours were good . I know they were sweet . I know because I was in every one of them . I was totally and completely present — whether it felt sweet or hard or holy or uncomfortable . I was present . And that made all the difference .
“ You get to decide when enough is enough . You get to set the pace for your own life .”
For the last few days , I ’ ve been wondering and praying about the words to leave you with . What words could I give you for the end of this story and , hopefully , the beginning of your own ? There are so many travel notes I could bestow for the journey coming up ahead . So many words , but I ’ ve settled on three :
Take your time .
It ’ s as simple and as difficult as that .
Technology will keep moving forward . It will only get faster and faster . There will always be new advances and new temptations to plunge deeper into digital connectivity . But you get to decide when enough is enough . You get to set the pace for your own life . You can slow things down . You can find your own rhythm . You can learn to sit in the silence and the stillness . You can approach your waking , breathing life with deliberate care and attention . You can take your time in a world hell-bent on convincing you there is never enough of it .
But I think those three words — take your time — run even deeper than that . They carry another meaning , a challenge I want to leave you with — a challenge to take your time back . Take your time back within a culture that will always move frenetically , making you feel like you ’ ll never get it all done . Take your time back for the better things of this lifetime — the things that rarely happen on a screen .
Take your time back for deeper connections with the people you love — the chance to get to know them all over again . Take your time back for all the beautiful side effects that come from learning to pay attention when it would be easier to divide that attention into tiny , disconnected fragments .
Take it back for dancing and for staying up too late into the night talking . Take it back for spontaneous adventures , for earlymorning coffee dates , for chances to go see the holiday lights . Take it back for dinners at the table where the phone doesn ’ t sit beside you , for making meals or cozying up on the couch with takeout , for dreaming and getting lost , for concerts in the park .
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