Tag: time

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129 Coffee with John

“Time you enjoy wasting was not wasted”

– Marthe Troly-Curtin.

I am sure I am not the first proponent, but I suggest we think about how we invest our time rather than how we waste or spend our time.

Yes, we do let time slip out of our hands each day through endless distractions—social media, online games, and endless scrolling on the internet. What I am suggesting is that we be deliberate about how we choose to engage with the time in our day.

Dedicate 10, 15, or even 45 minutes to activities that bring joy, enhance your life, or foster growth—even if they seem trivial to others.

Juggle a soccer ball, meditate, read a fantasy book, get out of the house for a walk, meet a friend for coffee, or do whatever fancies you, but do something that takes you out of your routine. Invest in yourself.

The hour talking to my coffee mate for this round of Coffee with John inspired this line of thought. Outside of social gatherings and the confinements of the yoga studio where we have known each other for a few years now, I didn’t know much about my coffee companion.

The hour investment has yielded many dividends. It has cultivated a friendship with a wonderful, generous person and introduced me to resources, musicians, restaurants, and more previously unknowns to me.

It is easy to say no to new experiences or dedicate a slot of our time to breaking our daily routines. My coffee mate could have said no to my invitation to be part of this project, but she took the risk of investing an hour away from her responsibilities and daily habits. I hope that investment has brought her as much of a return as it has for me.

My challenge is for you to find a dedicated time to invest in one activity that might enrich your life, from a small task you have been dreading to something you have always wanted to accomplish like learning photography.

You might need to overcome a fear, set aside time away from family, or make a monetary investment. Those challenges will seem insignificant as you break through, opening new horizons and realms of possibilities. If those challenges overwhelm you, I suggest you read Atomic Habits by James Clear. His whole principle is about taking small steps to accomplish your goals.

My challenge: learn how to juggle a soccer ball.

Coffee with John – November 5, 2024

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#92 Coffee with John

An hour.

So much can happen in an hour – meet the love of your life, take a wrong turn in life, have an encounter that will alter the rest of your life..the possibilities are endless.

What’s in those magical 60 minutes and 3,600 seconds

How do you choose to spend an hour of your day?

Exercise? Mediate? Read a book/poetry/an essay? Write your own poetry/essay/book? Or squander it away doing this or that?

So many choices, with no rights or wrongs.

An hour is exactly how long CWJ #92 lasted.

In that hour of this last meeting, I learned part a story and journey of a talented, smart woman finding her way in the world with the ups and downs that life brings. I am always incredibly grateful for the generosity strangers give, letting me drop into their lives for a moment in time.

I recently came into the idea of living in a poem, a concept brought forth by American poet Naomi Shihab Nyei. She explains it as not a permanent state but one, “when you think, when you’re in a very quiet place, when you’re remembering, when you’re savoring an image, when you’re allowing your mind calmly to leap from one thought to another — that’s a poem. That’s what a poem does.” She goes on to talk about holding and savoring that space.

To me, that one hour (or hours) people generously give to me when they decide to take part and join me in this CWJ journey, represents that notion of living in a poem. That space of conversations, shared moments of reflections, thoughts and words exchanged, are a sacred, magical poem to hold, punctuate and cherish.