The Way You Spend Your Time

Photo: Mr. Dickie (Coneflowers in our backyard)

Deluded by an exaggerated sense of our own importance, we deem it crucial to perform all tasks and activities according to our personal schedules. ... We make ourselves tense and miserable by our refusal to accept life as it comes. (Food For Thought, 5 May)

Do you realize that the way you spend your time reflects your values? Think for a moment about how you spend your days. (Kay Arthur, Search My Heart, O God, 10 May)

• Yesterday I took a short walk around the neighborhood. I stopped to sit on the deck with my friend, Charles, for a while. We talked about a project he hired someone to do. It didn't go well.
• I spent a lot of time talking on the phone. I talked with my high school friend in Pennsylvania, my college friend in Washington, my Army friend in Oregon and Melva in Panama. Melva and I discussed the events that need to take place on Wednesday when she returns to Maryland. She gave me instructions to record the Spanish soap opera, Dona Barbara on Telemundo on Wednesday evening.
• I continued to work on my paper clutter project. I prepared a notebook full of sheet binders holding pages of information about Google, Picasa, Ancestral Author, my SanDisk MP3 player and other information I'd printed out over many months. For the first time in a long time I know where certain sheets of instructions are located.
• One of Melva's customers called yesterday. When she called the beauty shop no one answered the phone. This happened because the shop closed permanently yesterday. We wonder if they put a sign in the window announcing what happened and if there's a list of where the employees relocated. Working in this business is never easy.

Mr. Dickie