Oh That Clock!

As my alarm screeched at me to awaken this morning, I couldn’t help but feel like Cinderella talking back to the old clock as its chime tells her once again where she must be;

“Oh that clock! Old killjoy. I hear you. Come on, get up, you say, Time to start another day. Even he orders me around.”

 My senior year of college, I spent the month of January in Costa Rica. The day before I left, I made sure to tuck my wristwatch securely into my suitcase, ready to keep me on time and in control. That watched stayed firmly strapped to my left wrist from the time we took off out of Newark airport, to the time we landed, a month later, in Newark airport. With every intention of checking it at all times while out of the country, I had almost forgotten I was wearing it.

San Jose is the capital of Costa Rica; a bustling little city, vibrant with color and culture. Our drive from the airport to our accommodations left me feeling right at home as the traffic was horrendous. Honking and cursing, quick right turns, and nascar-type left turns. “Everyone’s is in a rush here”,  I thought, “where is the cultural difference?”

The next morning our bus driver showed up 45 minutes late. He was a jovial man in his early 50’s, a smile that could have lit the sun. He pulled his faded teal bus up the driveway, put it in park, and hopped out. We waited for him to recognize his lateness, apologize for it even, after all, we were late for our very first outing in this beautiful new place. But he didn’t say a word about it. He shook our hands, kindly helped the girls onto the bus and off we went. And wouldn’t you know, the tour guide that we were arrived late for, had nothing to say about it either.

That is the culture. Time matters very little, as long as you are doing what is most important in that moment. Right on time or two hours later, it’s all the same to them. 

But how can we throw time to the wind when being late could cost us our jobs, our important appointments, even our relationships? If I detach myself from a clock for too long I start to miss things that I can’t afford to miss.

And so I have started setting alarms. Sitting in bed with a book between work and bible study? Set an alarm. That way I don’t have to constantly be checking the time and can read blissfully knowing that my alarm will let me know when It’s time to move on to something else. 

If this advice seems exactly like what Cinderella is ranting against in the quote I shared earlier, that’s because it is exactly like what she is ranting about. But I have found, that this is a million times better than frantically checking the clock every two seconds.

Must you always be a slave to the chime?! NO! 

On days where you have nothing pressing to be done, throw all clocks under the bed and follow no schedule. Vacations are perfect for this type of thing, but also snow days, sick days, or even personal days. Allow yourself the space to completely unplug from time and task, to just sit in the moment.