Who's Counting?

53 days until you are here.  What!?  That could not possibly be right.  I checked the calendar.  He was off a few days, but not much.  

Being the queen of procrastination, I realized I had much to accomplish in a very short amount of time.  The 53 days, give or take a couple of days, was a message from one of our grandchildren.  It was the amount of days left before we would see each other again.

It gave me a completely new perspective of how I view the passing of time.  We usually talk in weeks, months and years, but this kid had narrowed it down to days, days that were so merrily ticking by, one by one.  

I suppose young people do not count the passage of time in long amounts.  Perhaps that is because they are still new to the process, they haven't been programmed to think long term.  They live in the now and they think in shorter terms, like days.  Some even measure the passage in "sleeps".  Only five more sleeps before a special event takes place.

I began to survey my domain.  The stack of stuff, that lurks in the corner, getting bigger by the day, was still there.  The unfinished artwork, forever frozen in an invisible wind, waiting.  I wondered if it was impatient.  If it was actually talking to itself.  Saying things like, "She has time to do things that have absolutely no importance, why does she not finish me?!"  The laptop, sitting quietly, where it has been sitting for.....days, waiting for the rest of the story.

Even now, as I walk away from the keyboard, to pour another cup of tea, wondering just how to finish, I check on the bird feeders, even though I know they are empty.  I stop and jot down sunflower seeds on my shopping list.

Procrastination, the habit of putting things off, especially important things, things that need immediate attention.  I believe a lot of it comes down to fear, fear of failure.  The Voice, that lives inside of my head, whispered in my ear that some of the most successful people in the world had failed many times.  But, they did not give up.  I wondered if they were procrastinators too, the Voice rolled its eyes and left the room.

53 days.  Actually, it is less than that now.   Like the Smokey and the Bandit song, "I've got a long ways to go and a short time to get there.."  53 days...but, who's counting?