Day 3 of One Month to Live

This is Skye's hand-woven basket, a gift from a friend I've never met.  She sent it to me about four years ago.  I eventually purchased one from her for Bogey.  Each basket has the bird's name on it.  If you look carefully at the blocks hanging on the right hand side from the handle, you can make out some of the letters.

So today's chapter is "Time Squared: Spending Your Most Valuable Resource."  I've decided that there is not a worse time in my life to be reading this book than right now.  I don't feel well, so I'm not doing much of anything except "wasting" my time.  If I really had only a month to live, I'd be in deep trouble.  But in reality, I don't know if I even have that much time on this earth.

And in truth, that is what drove me from the fear of facing my death when I had cancer.  Why worry about when cancer might kill me, when hundreds of thousands of people loose their lives daily of accidental death.  It just made lots of sense to me then. 

And today is my birthday.  I thank God for the sun and the warmer temperatures that have followed it.  They cheer my spirits, even though my body is not feeling up to its best.  Bronchitis is trying to drag me down.  Fortunately a z-pack is in my future as soon as Hubs arrives home today.

But, back to chapter 3...There is a topic "Make it Count Moment," where the author invites you to break down your day and assess how much time that you spend doing only what you do best.  I'm failing miserably at this right now.  Ugh.  I am just sitting and spending lots of times playing games on FaceBook.  What a waste of time.  In my own defense, if I felt better, I'd be out and about.  But there I go, always coming up with another good defense...

The author goes on to mention Richard Koch who wrote The 80/20 Principle.  It was new to me, but Hubs, a businessman at heart, knew of the book and principles, which are that you waste 80% of your time and get the important stuff done in the remaining 20% of your time.  Guilty, as charged!  That's me.  Only in my case I don't even know if I'm using 20% wisely.

Then the "External Clock" theory hits the scene.  That's the belief that in order for our time to count, we must be able to show something for it.  Guilty, again!  This is where the author invites you to smell your coffee, go for a walk, spend time meditating, or whatever will bring you  closer to God.

And last but not least, we come to the wonderful suggestions at the end of the chapter.  Today's first one is to keep a journal, which I am doing right here.  But I am not going to disclose how much wasted time that I've spent on the Internet today.

The next suggestion invites the reader to ponder their biggest time waster in the past week and the payoff.  I like the idea of listing "other" ways to "spend" that time.  I have the answers, just not the will to do it, although I am becoming more aware of how I am spending my time.  I like this because I am doing more with Hubs at night, trying to get in bed when he does, and generally be more attentive to him.

The last suggestion in this chapter is to rate which season of life the reader is currently in.  It gives suggestions of hibernating emotionally or preparing to burst forth with buds like spring.  I think that I'm in a "holding" season, waiting to get back some energy and better health.

Okay, I sneaked a peak at tomorrow's chapter.  The first quote is from C.S. Lewis:
                               

You don't have a soul.  You are a soul.

       You have a body.

And with that behind me, I am going to get ready to go out into God's perfectly made day and enjoy a walk in His nature listening for skuttling squirrels and chirping birds.  This is the day that the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it.  And no, I don't know which scripture that is.  But I'll look it up later today.

Blessings on your day.