Minding Your Minutes… toward true resilience
For several years, I’ve been playing with the phrase “Minding Your Minutes.” I’ve used it in keynote talks, in retreats and workshops and in meditation classes. It brings me back to the present moment- a signal to pay attention. What’s happening right now? What is calling for my attention? It has anchored my mindfulness practice in a color-coded calendar appointment.
Lately, the phrase has taken on a different tone. These minutes that have stretched into weeks and days- now months- of sheltering. Watching the news and then stopping. Bingeing on Netflix followed by cracking into the stack of books on the nightstand. Searching for paper towels and then realizing that the mismatched party napkins would do. Time has become more weird, more uncertain and more poignant. Birdsong sounds like symphony. Someone is leaving heart stickers and chalk drawings along my walking trail.
Now, Minding Your Minutes has become a call to Action.
How do I really want to spend these precious minutes with my family, in my work and with my own hopeful heart?
Who could use a call to lift spirits?
What’s meaningful about this project?
What might make my daughter smile even though graduation is cancelled?
How can I serve? Which food trucks are feeding the nurses this week?
What do I most long for now?
The longing has started to come into focus.
It’s not a longing for normalcy or the way things were before. The pace of that life seems alien and nonsensical now.
Meetings to talk about the projects that we delayed and discussed last week have lost their luster. They have been relegated to Covey’s “not urgent / not important” quadrant and are gathering dust in the corner.
The idea of spinning like a dervish to do more, acquire more and be more has run its course- actually grinding to a halt along with these millions of jobs, (including mine).
The longing is for meaning- for engagement in work that honors the resilience and wellbeing of our collective spirits.
It’s a longing for the meaningful use of time in a way that feels authentic and real, regardless of perceived economic value. A stepping back to what is truly vital.
The list gets smaller and more in focus. There’s a sacred quality and it’s closer to the bone.
“Minding Your Minutes” has become the most important tool in my toolbox to plan my days.
What am I doing?
Why am I doing this?
What’s important about this?
What’s the real reason I’m doing this?
How does this serve?
What else could I be doing instead?
How does this make me feel?
There’s a mix of work and play, industry and rest. No shortage of projects or action lists, but with a difference.
When the clutter is stripped away, I’m minding my minutes to meaningfully engage in the work (and play) of my spirit and heart.
