From Alice in Wonderland to Queen Esther

(ROCKWALL, TX — March 12, 2018) What does Daylight Saving Time actually save? My body has already asked me that question. We went to bed an hour early Saturday night thinking surely that would reset our internal alarms. All it did was cause me to look at the clock every hour on the hour so I wouldn’t oversleep! It’s 1:30 Sunday afternoon, and I’m already in great need of a nap!

It’s not nice to fool with Mother Nature.

I wonder if the milk cows got up an hour earlier; or the roosters. Why are we so tied to the moving of the hands on the clock? Time is a measurement that divides our days into useful increments. We give a certain number of hours for sleep (if we are blessed enough to NOT suffer from insomnia! It seems to be a national epidemic.). We wake each morning to music or noises that are loud enough to rattle us out of somnolence. Even the scrubbing of bodies and teeth has designation for a certain number of minutes before we embark in time for the work of the day.

I think we’re delusional about time management. I think time manages us. “We’re late! We’re late, for a very important date! No time to say hello, good-bye. We’re late! We’re late!

We’re late!” Even the White Rabbit in Alice in Wonderland was consumed by it.

I’ve used the phrase, “Time is a gift.” Just think about it. Twenty-four hours in a day. Sixty minutes in an hour. Sixty seconds in a minute. Seven days in a week. On and on I could go reminding us of how we measure time. We say, “Time will tell”, or “Don’t waste my time.”

My time is valuable. “She’s ahead of her time”, or “You’re behind the times” falls off our lips without a thought. What about “a race against time”, or “Just in the nick of time.”

(What’s a nick?)

I really like, “Have the time of your life!” I have had…several times! But I’m biding my time before you catch me at a bad time. Do you have a lot of time on your hands?

Have I reminded you, “All in good time?”

I’m going to stop now because I’m out of time. May I suggest, “For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; …” That’s written by a man named Solomon who thought he had everything, but time still plagued him.

Queen Esther was reminded, “And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” Remember the first words in the Bible, “In the beginning”? That was the first increment of time. Time IS precious. Time IS a gift. How are you using yours? Time flies. Now is the time. Time’s up. Word.

By Paula Lively. Paula is a Volunteer Chaplain at Broadmoor Medical Lodge in Rockwall. She is a VERY retired RN who loves serving the residents at Broadmoor. She and her husband, Fred, have lived in Rockwall for 15 years.

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