Play it Through

by Natasha Ulack

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Life is busy. Between work and swim meets and cub scouts, meal planning, and fixing the gutters on the house, there are always chores that don’t fully get checked off. You run through the day as best you can, and then, laying in bed, you replay where your time went. What’s left over that I have to finish tomorrow? Did I eat today? If I go to bed right now, how many hours of sleep will I get before I do it all again?

When it starts to feel like too much, I turn on one of my favorite movies, “About Time.”  It’s about a man who learns from his dad that he can travel in time within his own life by going into a dark place and clenching his fist. Ultimately his dad shares with him the secret to wielding this gift is to live each day twice. Once normally, checking off the list the best you can, but then again, taking it all in. Absorbing the good and the bad, and yes, even the mundane.

Of course I can’t go into a closet, clench my fist and travel back to a day where I’ve got less to do, but what if I took each day as if it was that second chance? You can’t stop the hateful days from coming. The days you’d rather fast-forward to the end, but if I only get one shot at it, I’ll look for all those moments, no matter how small, and I’ll hold them close. I’ll take comfort in them, because yeah life is busy, but it’s a good life and one worth playing through to the end.

Stop running for just a moment. I know you have places to be and things to do, but take a moment to be still and soak up this life.

- Ashlee Edens