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Different seasons in our lives allow, or require, or administer different kinds of living.  There have been those times in my life, and I am sure in yours as well, when we have felt compelled to fill every moment of the day.  Remember "Idleness is the devil's workshop?"  And St. Benedict's conviction that 'idleness is the enemy of the soul."  It seems as if our lives are controlled and consummed by blocks of allocated time.

Did you know that it was not until the 17th century that clocks had minute hands?  Productivity must surely have increased and then time became divided and then subdivided into seconds and minutes and hours.  Much has been lost!

You might wonder what was lost.  I will tell you.  We have become lost in the space and place of time.  We experience these losses everyday.  We lose contact with friends, we wave to neighbors we don't know, we don't smile for fear someone takes it the wrong way, we don't look at the blue sky with wonder anymore, and we don't get a lump in our throats at the song of a bird.  We don't marvel at the breath of a puppy.  We don't relinquish the control of time for fear we miss something.  We are consummed yet still hungry.  Satiated yet empty. 

Think of it...we can get vine ripe tomatoes at any time of year. That one luscious gift of summer that tantalizes your taste buds is now available, tasting like cardboard,  in January.  Christmas decorations are in the stores in August.  Valentines are in the stores the day after Christmas.

We are living, but living far away from the understanding that each day, each precious moment is a gift not a commodity to be spent or wasted or something saved for later.  We are living disconnected from what enlivens the soul.  A deep appreciation for the times of our lives is becoming more subdued and vague.  As we fill ourselves with distractions and noise and frivolous activities and actions, we fail to hear the whispers of our world and our hearts.  We fail to see the signals that are deep inside that will guide us, nourish us, protect us and ensure that we are living the best life we can.

Let us begin today.