This afternoon I read a few lines in the book You Can Have It All by Arnold M. Patent that helped me to make a decision that has been weighing heavily on me.

My daughter, granddaughter, and I are on the beach at Panama City in a condo with a “Splash” indoor water park. My eight-year-old granddaughter just loves it…and loves having me there with her. On the other hand, I have several work related responsibilities that need to be completed. I had thought I could work on them some from the hotel room. However, as fate would have it, there is no signal in the condo. Hmm, wonder what message that is sending?

Feeling torn between wanting to free my mind of those responsibilities/enjoy this time with my granddaughter…and the pressing responsibilities, I read the following:

“…intuition is Infinite Intelligence talking to us between our thoughts. In order to receive this communication, we have to tune out the other mechanism – our thinking mind.”

“We gradually shift our focus from our thoughts to our feelings. We start to notice what our intuition feels like and what it sounds like. We try following our intuition’s guidance, and we take note of the results.”

I looked up from the passage and into the eyes of my granddaughter, gleefully frolicking in the water, and I had my answer. In the pensive moment, I also thought back to the beautiful passage by Neale Donald Walsch sent to me by a friend last Friday:

On this day of your life, dear friend, I believe God wants you to know…

….that the time has come for you to nourish your soul.

 When was the last time that you swam naked?

Or sang in the shower? Or blew bubbles?

Or held a puppy? Or kissed a baby?

Or made love all Sunday afternoon?

 Or prayed really softly, not from need, but from love?

Has it been a while?

Then hurry. Do it. 

 This is life that is going by…

 Love, Your Friend….

 I just left the water park long enough to find a location with a signal. Gotta send a few emails announcing the postponement of some responsibilities till I return next week. As an extra note of comfort, I recall also that Esther Hicks always tells us, “You’ll never get it all done.”

We can work and work, and there is always still more to do. Today my intuition is telling me, “This time can never be replaced.”

Gotta hurry and get back to the water park. This is life that is going by…

I am writing today’s article because I need to hear the message again myself…even though I just heard it on Sunday. The minister’s topic at our church service was “The Time of Your Life.” The following are insights that he shared with us.

“Do not squander your time, for time is the stuff that life is made of.” ~ Benjamin Franklin.

There’s lots of things we can do with time. We can spend it, save it, take time, make up time, manage time, kill and waste time, we can have free time, extra time, too much time, lose time, gain time, prime time, then there’s doing time, hard times. At some point each of us will run out of time. Time is the raw material of life. The way you spend your time is the way you spend your life. If you master your time, you master your life. We each get the same amount.

Time doesn’t need managing. What we need to manage is ourselves. Our body has a limited shelf life. What am I doing with my opportunity of a lifetime?

The minister gave three suggestions to better enjoy life:

        1) Take time to become clear on what is important to you. Wasting time is a clear sign that you don’t know what’s important to you. Identifying what is important to you forces you to make some choices. Decide how you want to spend your time while you are here. Where are you seeking? Socrates once said, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” Why are you here? Think of a time 3 years from now. It is your funeral. What will your family, friends, co-workers, members of your church community say about you? What would you like people to say about you? At the end of your life, what would you like to say about you and how you lived your life? Listen to what your soul is calling you to experience.

        2) Take time to heal the things that need to be healed within you. What is frustrating you, broken, damaged, holding you back? Take time to fix or heal it. Quit complaining and take time to fix it. Go in and do the healing work. You don’t think you are worthy of something that great.

        3) Life is now. Time is now. Take time to live now. It is all you have. There is nothing stopping you from feeling joy now but you. An old Buddhist saying is “Take care of this moment and you take care of all life.”

Take time to become clear on what is important to you. Listen to what your soul is calling.

WOW, now I need to print this out, keep it where I can see it, and pay attention to his wise words. How about you?