Stealing Seconds

There's never enough time. I get that. The problem is, the little precious time we have is wasted jumping from one meeting to the next. Work is overvalued and personal time takes the place of rest and we wonder why we're suddenly so exhausted. In our minds, the benefit outweighs the cost, but I am here to argue that that is a dangerous and incorrect assumption. I have been more happy sitting in a park looking at the sky through gently swaying leaves than I was when things were moving like clockwork. Incredibly enough, even with our hiccups, we still look like superstars.

But the real distinction comes from whether we are okay, not whether we act okay. All is not so dreamy here in the land of milk and honey. I've been struggling for a while now to find the "fun" that I am missing. I refuse to believe that it is the nature of the beast. I do not think that given the amount of work that we have that we cannot make time for laughter and rest and camaraderie.

I don't think it's the big outings that make the difference. I think it's the little moments of silliness. Small moments of freedom where there's no expectations of behavior or propriety. That we loosen the chains a bit and are allowed to kick our feet up. Continuously. Not at the end of the week. Not away from volunteers. It should be as often as possible. Putting ourselves into these shells because that's what is expected of us as professionals is a joke. Amigos or amigos, we are who we are. It's why we create such strong friendships that become open invitations to a couch or, god forbid, a bed. We exchange poop stories, we laugh, we cry, we walk, we talk, we feedback, we poop some more. And then we share it with this small group because they are the only ones who can ever understand.

Small moments of time. Letting the person who signed the papers to get on the plane come out a little bit more often. An army of workers is not what we are. We're supposed to be different. We're supposed to be flawed. The beautiful thing about it all is that through our shared connection, the little a over our hearts, somehow we still manage to make it all work out.