MUSINGS Print
     I don’t know where the winter went.  I really don’t!  It seems as if one week we closed, and I breathed a big sigh of relief as I packed for our trip to Germany & Italy.  We returned, waded through the holidays, and I packed for the gift marts.  After a hectic week of writing website articles and catch-up back home, we left for the AT&T in California.  Home for another week of writing the newsletter, and then we made a quick zip trip for a long weekend to visit our kids in Florida.  And, now it’s time to open!

     Of course, there was seeding and greenhouse work, addressing Christmas cards, meetings, laundry and all the mundane things of life.  I tested lots of recipes, visited my mother, read a couple of books, finally put away all of the summer clothes and brought out the warm ones, but that certainly didn’t take four months.  Where did all those hours go that I intended to use to learn to edit my website, to start a blog, to learn to use my new camera, to read the pile of magazines that accumulated over the growing season, to explore garden websites, to have lunch with friends?

     Yes, I did watch some basketball and football at night.  I am a sports nut, after all, but I nearly always do some kind of work while I watch.  I make plant signs, I work on seeding lists, I make notes for articles, or make job lists.  I do write a paragraph or so in a journal every evening, which helps keep things in perspective and gives me a working schedule each year, but that takes only minutes.

     So, where did all the time go?  I can’t get it back.  So, how do I find the time to do those things that are becoming more important to me?  Obviously, I have to reduce the time I spend doing one thing, in order to give it to another.  I must prioritize, and eliminate those time-grabbers that are not important.  I’ve already reduced the number of hours wasted in slumber, and my hair gets shorter and shorter in an attempt to reduce styling time.  I’m careful to consolidate my lists, so one trip to town finishes all the errands, usually on allergy shot day so I don’t have to make a separate trip

     I can grow anything, but I can’t grow more time.  Not only does money fail to grow on trees, but time doesn’t grow there either.  I’ve looked.  Carefully.  I know I shouldn’t complain, because I’m blessed to have already had sixty-three years of time.  Not everyone gets that much.  And, I don’t have to spend hours commuting to and from work, which I would really, really hate.  But, I do want more time in my gardens this year.  Time to notice all the little, perfect things that I often rush by.   Time to savor the sunsets and sunrises.
 
     So, as soon as I can figure out what time-grabbing things to deduct from my days, I’ll have time for that.  Too bad I don’t have more time to think about it, because right now I’m clueless!  As Scarlett said, “I guess I’ll just think about that tomorrow.”  When I have more time.