Twenty-Four Hours Can Be Much More

I have always had twenty-four hours in a day. We all have. Sometimes there seems to be much more, other days, less.

But I have found out it is that what I do with them each day that determines how many I feel I have had.

Some days I might feel I have had six hours as I have focused so deeply and progressed well. The day seems to have flown by. It is midnight, I am tired, time to rest.

Other days I am a slug, unable to accomplish much or even want to.  Those days feel more like 48 hours have passed. And I crawl into bed with no discernible difference to the hours of the day.

Most days though I feel like Goldilocks, the time has been just right. The twenty-four-hour plan has been relatively stuck to, but we are open to adjusting. A day of writing, social pursuits, exercise, and relaxation has been full but not overwhelming. I like those days and am experiencing more of them.

I don’t have a secret. I am evolving all the time, or at least I hope so. Sometimes my self-perception is skewed.

Glenn and my life in Mexico is what we make of it. We try to maximize every minute.

This is so different from my run around with my head cut off, chicken days. Scratching at jumbles in my mind.

Time is not money! Time is life. Time is connection. Time is being curious. Time is love. Time is taking a deep breath. Time is being fulfilled.

I don’t think many of us grow up with a good relationship with time and its potential.

Think about growing up. Or at least I will. Does this sound familiar?

Parents stress about work, about bills, about commitments. They spend their time doing things and making money to survive but not necessarily flourish. Nowadays free time doesn’t fit with the plan, instead, time is something to be filled, with after school activities, networking, and extra-curricular work.

I don’t ever remember a relaxed time in our house growing up. A time when everyone just chilled out and we’re content with each other.

We learn to fill our days with stuff. We have to accomplish to be a worthy member of society. Cultivating a good, decent, thoughtful person is not the goal.

I didn’t learn about time management until 2002. After that, I wanted to use my time wisely. But, I had so many stressors to just keep my head above water that its implications didn’t truly sink in.

I kept thinking I had to make money to be happy, feel secure, and be a solid, productive citizen.

And, there was no one to tell me differently.

Glenn and I, by changing our attitude about time and money now find we have an abundance of both.

An abundance of money does not mean we have filled bank accounts. We are comfortable. But, we also made a decision to move to a country that is more tranquillo. A country where people take time for one another.  Where everyone doesn’t strive to buy the “next best thing.” Where competition is healthy and people are proud.

In San Miguel, we notice that it really doesn’t matter what you have done in the past. People come here to reinvent themselves. To get a tune-up. To grow wings.

We choose who we will spend our time with by asking ourselves, are they a good person, do they have interesting pursuits, can we have an afternoon conversation with them and do they like sunsets and margaritas.

It doesn’t matter if they live in a million-dollar mansion or a six-hundred dollar a month one-bedroom apartment. We want to know who they are, not what they have or who they were.

Most of the people we have met here are searching out the best way to spend their time in order to make a fulfilling life. Yardsticks here have different notches and measurements for a good life. And like us, they find that no matter how much time they have left, they can use it to be content.

Time is fluid, and time is right now at this moment.

Those twenty-four hours are so much more than the pacing on a clock.