Time to Think

“We are not the father of time. We are the children of time.” – Ilya Prigogine, Nobel Prize winner in Chemistry, 1977
I’ve finally figured out what keeps me from approaching the next level of writing prowess. Time. Now I know what you’re thinking. Nobody has enough time, Dana. Get real. We’re all working, parenting, serving in church, tending to life’s daily tasks, etc. True enough, but I have come to the realization that I purposefully fill my life with so much business I don’t have time to think. I don’t mean time to plot, write a synopsis and the like, I mean time to really think about what moves me, bothers me, alters the world around me at any given moment. Yes, I make time for my morning devotional but then I’m off like a scalded cat, running hither and yon with no time for reflection. Are my tasks important? Probably. Are they as important as sitting down and really thinking about my purpose and passion in God’s world? Nope.
It stands to reason that if I don’t take the time to listen to the tides of life go by, those tides will not wash over my writing and make it all that it could be. They will be words well crafted, and plots that engage, but will they really move people? If I made more time in my day and in my life to think, what would I hear? A strong call to move in a direction I haven’t contemplated? A revelation that someone nearby needs me? I only hope that I can step off the endlessly spinning wheel I have created for myself long enough to give it a try.
“Man is born broken. He lives by mending. The grace of God is glue.” -Eugene O’Neill, Nobel Prize for Literature, 1936