A few weeks ago Bill, Luke, and I crammed ourselves, a portable crib, high-chair, baby-backpack, two pairs of hiking boots, a few clothes, and 20 disposable diapers into the Honda Civic, and drove 50 miles south through the flowering Flint Hills for a weekend in the cabin on our friend Pete’s ranch.  Our first “camping” trip since Luke was born was made infinitely easier by the stove, refrigerator, shower, and air-conditioner Pete had installed in his parents’ old chicken coop.
Nobody was going to go hungry on my watch; it was perfect abundance; two days at the ranch with enough food for at least a week.
It felt great.
You can have enough of many things, but may you never have enough time
Lately, I’ve been thinking about the concept of enough as it applies to time.
Our two days at the ranch demonstrate that it is eminently possible to have enough food.  A person can have enough stuff and enough money and, contrary to popular belief, there is always the potential to lose enough weight. However, when it comes to time, my hope for you is that you’ll always have more ideas and opportunities than you have waking hours to put into action.  I wish you abundant options for using your gifts and graces.  I wish you endless opportunity to choose how you use each moment of your wonderful life.
We humans have a tendency to express a certain type of anxiety with the phrase, “I don’t have enough time to…”  We respond to that anxiety with lists, calendars, software, post-its on our computers, and all manner of fancy cure-alls for “time management” complaints.  We run ourselves ragged trying to “find time” to get our work done, keep our volunteer commitments, spend time with our families, call our friends, exercise, and sleep well, with the faint hope in the back of our minds that when all is said and done we will have enough time left over for reflection and some kind of spiritual life that will give meaning to it all.
It may be time to readjust your thinking.  I’m convinced.  A good life means that there will never be enough time. Your Blackberry works for your Heart; not the other way around.
Like it or not, you can’t manage time
Projects, budgets and events can be managed.  Time, like people, requires a lighter touch.
Furthermore, while a system change here and there might improve our efficiency, most “time management” efforts camouflage a desire for something more.  We yearn for the experience of being wholly present for our lives. We want to know that our work matters, that our leadership inspires, that the people we care about appreciate us, and that there is more to life than a to-do list and a fully-charged cell phone.
Making the shift from time management to being present for the time of your life does not require throwing out all your task lists and timetables. Although it is worth asking yourself: Which of these props facilitate creativity, competence and confidence, and which of them are blocking the flow?
Make a habit of listening to your heart
The really important work begins when you put the lists aside and slow down enough to take a few deep breaths and initiate a daily practice of listening to your heart.  To create the space to listen, commit to one or more of these simple daily habits:
Spend a few moments every day noticing the sunrise or what’s going on in the night sky.
Take three conscious breaths every hour, noticing each breath coming in and going out.
Make a cup of tea or coffee. Back your chair away from your desk and enjoy drinking it.
Twice a day, stand up and take five big breaths, drawing your arms above your head as you breathe in and gently lowering them as you breathe out.
Whenever you think of it, feel your feet.
A client wrote to me today, “When I go with my heart I am on the right track. Why is it such a difficult place for me to stay? I always end up back there eventually anyway because it is the only place I can move forward from.”
My answer to her – and to you, and to myself – is that it takes courage to stay with your heart.  But it’s the only way to live. It doesn’t matter how many tasks you get done in a day, satisfaction is impossible if your life is going one way while your heart is keening towards another.
Making a habit of even one, short, daily moment of reflection nurtures your heart and prepares you to shift your relationship with time.  Time management becomes irrelevant because time expands as you reacquaint yourself with your heart.
Often, in the course of a day or an hour, a familiar tension in my back and shoulders signals that once again I’m attempting to manage time.  In that moment I stop, breathe deeply, and experience being present for my life.
What is your experience of being present for yours?