Dear Diary, How much difference do a few minutes make?<\/p>\n
How much difference do a few minutes make?\u00a0\u00a0 From a photon’s perspective, a pure particle of light, there isn’t a such thing as ‘a few minutes.’\u00a0\u00a0 It may bounce around for billions of years in incredibly dense matter, trying to escape and then travel through space to reach our eyes.\u00a0 However,\u00a0 because it travels at the speed of causality, the ‘c’ in e=mc2<\/sup>,\u00a0 time does not exist.\u00a0\u00a0 It took billions of years for us, but nothing at all for it.\u00a0 A few minutes didn’t make a difference.<\/p>\n How much difference would a few minutes have made for George Floyd if the officers released their lethal oxygen depriving force on him sooner?\u00a0 A citizen would have lived, and the tinderbox may not have been lit until another day.\u00a0 \u00a0To an anxious person,\u00a0 how long is a minute?\u00a0 To a person caught in a fight or flight mode,\u00a0 trying to figure out how to secure a beneficial outcome when likely most variables are out of their control, a minute is forever.\u00a0 Unlike the photon where the minute doesn’t exist, the anxious minute occurs but in the slowest, most agonizing way we can perceive.\u00a0 How long was eight minutes and forty-six seconds to a worried man pleading for his life, when most if not all variables were out of his control?\u00a0 How much difference would a few minutes have made but life and death?<\/p>\n How much difference would a few minutes have made to someone who just missed the train,\u00a0 walked into a critical meeting after it started, or spoke before they thought and received immediate consequences?\u00a0\u00a0 The anxious minute feels like it never ends,\u00a0 the photon never has a minute,\u00a0 but the guilty minute lasts forever.\u00a0\u00a0 The guilty minute is something that has already occurred but replays on loop in the mind of the offender. \u00a0\u00a0The guilty minute may morph into anxious minutes while the fear of consequences takes hold, or hopefully be released through forgiveness.\u00a0\u00a0 How much difference would a few minutes have made to people under the burden of guilt?\u00a0 Those few minutes could alter a day or the course of their lives.<\/p>\n A few minutes may be the difference between decisions being made a certain way or perhaps at all.\u00a0\u00a0 A few minutes may be the difference between someone sealing off their heart or being relieved at the last moment.\u00a0\u00a0 A few minutes may be the difference between a remarkable opportunity or a missed one.\u00a0\u00a0 A few minutes may be the start of someone’s great day, and you took the time to cause it.\u00a0 Time is inherently a limited resource for us living beings.\u00a0\u00a0 We create our value and meaning in how we spend our time,\u00a0 who we invest our time in, and what we decide to do.\u00a0 Somewhere along the way, we’ve accelerated the pace of life to a point we’ve forgotten how to live it.<\/p>\n It is, believe it or not, ok to not build Rome in a day.\u00a0 It is ok not to have eighty-hour workweeks.\u00a0 It is ok to stop and smell the roses.\u00a0 The endless march towards late-stage capitalism and the enrichment of the owner class has been going on since the invention of agriculture,\u00a0 and it shows no sign of slowing any time soon.\u00a0 It is ok not to get caught up in it; it is ok to be content with “less.”\u00a0 Spending a few minutes more on self-care makes a big difference,\u00a0 as does the attention to the tasks in the present.\u00a0 Whether you are tending your garden,\u00a0 baking bread, or writing someone a note,\u00a0 the details matter, and they will be noticed.<\/p>\n Take some time to look up and see what took billions of our years to arrive, and about what countless generations wrote stories.\u00a0\u00a0 Take the few minutes to think about what you sincerely want to express and invest your time doing.\u00a0 Try your best to have fewer anxious and guilty minutes while being mindful those around you are having theirs.\u00a0\u00a0 Be forgiving, of yourself and others, as none of us are perfect, and forgiveness goes a long way towards not only healing but bridge-building.\u00a0 Remember,\u00a0 while a few minutes may seem insignificant on the grand scale of things, we live life on that scale all day every day.\u00a0 A few minutes continuously changes the world,\u00a0 ensure you make a difference with yours.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Dear Diary, How much difference do a few minutes make? How much difference do a few minutes make?\u00a0\u00a0 From a photon’s perspective, a pure particle of light, there isn’t a such thing as ‘a few minutes.’\u00a0\u00a0 It may bounce around for billions of years in incredibly dense matter, trying to escape and then travel through […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[304],"tags":[291,263,172,140,313],"class_list":["post-27645","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dear-diary","tag-291","tag-anxiety","tag-communication","tag-death","tag-mindfulness"],"yoast_head":"\n