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Owning the Snippets

"Unlimited time became the luxury I yearned for, but because I didn't have it, time became what I learned to use. A minute here and a minute there and there was, surprisingly, 'enough' of it. I just had to be willing to be open-minded. I just had to be willing to give up my agenda of 'lots' of time, my fantasy of life as a full-time artist, and settle for the patchwork quilt of time here and there." --Julia Cameron

I get asked all the time how I do all that I do. A big part of that is owning the snippets of time we have sprinkled throughout the day.

I learned this lesson from a friend's father. He studies languages on his own, speaking many and reading even more, to be able to read literature in the language it was written and to understand the culture there more.

He shared the story of being invited to attend a session where ancient Egyptian documents were being translated. The translators sat around a big conference table, and each took their turn with the translation. When it got to him, he was asked if he'd like to take a turn, and he said yes. When his turn was over, the others asked him which school he had studied at, because apparently there is a limited number of schools that teach that. His answer - "I learned while waiting for the bus."

A few months after hearing this I saw him waiting with his wife for a choir concert to begin. He was reading a book, and when I walked up, I saw it was a language dictionary. I asked him if he was learning or refreshing. "Refreshing." 

Grabbing the snippets of time and using them well is powerful. How many ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs can be learned while waiting for the bus? I don't know the answer to that, but I'm guessing it's more than you'd learn if you were mentally checked out or turned off. 

"The opposite of spare time is, I guess, occupied time. In my case I still don't know what spare time is because all my time is occupied. It always has been and it is now. It's occupied by living." --Ursula Le Guin

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