Day 10: Fifteen Minutes of Tame

Wish 10: Time to Reflect

This year, just before the change from Daylight Saving Time to Standard Time, people were surveyed about how they would spend the extra hour in the day. Can you guess the most popular answer? Sleep. People want to catch up with their sleep. Is it such a busy world we live in that we need to use any extra time we have to rest up?

My friends in New Jersey are two of millions of working Americans who can't make everything fit in a day. They spend 8-9 hours at an office, commute 2-3 hours and rush around the rest of their day's time to eat and to prepare to work or commute. So, they are lucky to get six hours of sleep a night. They so look forward to a vacation, where they can fit a lot of activities in that don't relate to work. So, throughout the year, they are managing their time.

Here's an interesting scenario. What if you were granted 15 more minutes in a day - all to yourself? What if everyday, you had 24 hours and 15 minutes in a day, and it started tomorrow? What would you do with the extra quarter hour? Would you also sleep in? Would you use it to plan better?

I think that extra 15 minutes should be used to reflect. I believe reflection is the one thing we should do but we don't have enough time to do.

Reflection is what made our civilization. Thousands of years ago, time and energy was spent on hunting for food. When sources of meat were domesticated and crops were planted, there was time saved. When people found ways to store food, time was saved again. That saved time was used to increase capacity and to look back. Reflection gave us the vast knowledge in arts and sciences that we enjoy today.

With that extra time to reflect, one should look back at their day, and just simply think, as if to meditate. There are a lot of insights into yourself that you could learn. Reflection works. When you go out to a seminar or workshop for a whole day, you get to do or learn something different from your everyday life. Learning time is time to reflect. You realize there is something you could not have figured out by yourself if you just kept on working and commuting and eating and sleeping.

With reflection you can look at your relationships with your family, friends, colleagues and everyone else. You could recall how your teenage son looked like as a baby. You could think about what you really want to do with your life. You can have a frank discussion with God. You can determine your passion.

My wish is for extra time in the day to reflect on anything, because my thoughts and aspirations, and not my job, will define me into the future.