Coming ready or not and yes, I was caught talking to myself 

Christmas, I know it comes every year but does it actually come faster every year?! It reminds me of when I would play hide and seek as a child – ‘coming ready or not,’ I would yell if I was the seeker! Right now Christmas is the seeker, “COMING READY OR NOT!” bombards from all directions. In years past, I would have been shrieking, ‘you’ve found me go away!’

I say would have and I mean this, because times have changed. I’m thinking I may have actually acquired wisdom!
Anyway, have you ever wondered why life seems to pass more quickly as you get older? Christmas seemed to take forever to come around when I was a child!

The other day doing the stables I was having an out loud, riveting conversation with myself about this topic when a friend appeared at the door of the barn. She was smiling like the ‘Cheshire cat’ in Alice in Wonderland. I’d been caught talking to myself before by my husband but he expects anything from me so it doesn’t count. My friend was a different matter she thought (now past tense) I was normal in fact an inspiration to her!

My friends laughter was infectious and once the embarrassment wore off, we laughed for several more minutes causing the two young mares residing in the barn to pop their eyes and stand at the back of their stalls thinking we’d gone crazy. I’m glad no one else was around to see us.

My conversation had been full of questions and observations to the Universe.
Does life actually speed up as you get older?
Why do the days go faster as Christmas looms?
Why does each year seem to go by faster and faster?
Is the present giving thing out of control?

There were several other questions but you probably get the idea, and as my friend and I wandered up to the house we discussed gift giving at Christmas. We had already made a pact not to worry about presents this year apart from having a lovely lunch together. We decided that Christmas really is for children. We shared our memories of Christmas morning and racing out to the living room to see what Santa had left. For me it was never the horse I longed for but the excitement remains clear and strong in my memory. The topic then turned to the question, are we all spending too much on our family or kids at Christmas and are we giving in to the pressure of not being thought of as stingy? We reached a stalemate on this one and I repeated something I heard on the radio recently. It was a great plan for present giving to the family and kids:

Give them:

one thing they want,

one thing they need,

one thing to wear,

and one thing to read. 

Once we had sorted out the present giving thing my friend asked me, ‘in an ideal world what is the thing you most desire?’ I didn’t have to think twice. My reply was ‘time’. Time to dedicate to writing or the many other things I have on my ‘I want to do’ list. As I said to my friend, sometimes one’s conscience insists that it’s hard to justify spending so much time on something like my writing when it doesn’t pay the bills. As much as I love to write my books I know they do not pay the bills! She then asked, did you originally think you were going to make money from breeding horses? Why should you expect to make money from these wonderful animals that you love? You don’t make money from your pets do you? I thought about this and said, ‘this topic needs to be covered in depth on another occasion. Let’s get back to time.’

Time elusive time, is there a key to slowing down the pace of life?
Is it all about how we use our time?
I think about the new occurrences in my life, my struggle to learn new things and how I frustrated I often feel. I wonder if I’ll ever learn. Time went by slower on these occasions, as it did when we first began breeding horses. It really did feel forever before the long awaited foal arrived. Then – after breeding horses for over thirty years it seemed as if the foals were arriving in a blink of an eye. I began the think that I would do anything to stretch out the mares gestation period by a few more months.

So is it when we become familiar and repetitive that life goes faster?
Does that mean we should always take up the challenge and continually try new experiences?
Certainly when I compare breeding horses and writing books the foals might have come quickly but the books tested me and my time management. It took me forever to write Tails Carried High. Now strangely enough the days fly by as I write, blog, market and type, type and type. Here we are with the new experience now being familiar. I don’t know about familiarity breeding contempt but familiarity has my life disappearing as fast as water down a drain pipe.

I know this year has been a test for me personally so I now make a point to focus on the positive, to live in the question while being more aware of who I am. I’m living more in the present, being grateful for everyday and holding onto a future full of hope and optimism. Now when I hear that catch cry, ‘coming ready or not,’ in my head I smile because I’m pretty sure they won’t find me! I’m happy even if I’m procrastinating, I have no deadlines. I can give myself a blog holiday and have coffee with friends instead of typing and I think I’m making an effort to use my time wisely. At least wisely for me. Think about it …