Friday 9 January 2009

Time Again


You can stop time. There's a button for that.

Someone asked me recently when I write. When I haven't taken an unintentional blogging break, these days I write in the evening, mostly. Right now it's 3:36pm and Safiya is playing with a friend and there are a million other things to be done, but I'm here. Not making dinner, not un-decorating the solstice tree, not making things for the "Love and Rummage" trunk show coming up. Not sorting out rotten apples.

Here.

Here is a good place. It used to be that here was when time really did stop. I started writing back when Safiya still napped. Because as every parent knows, when you have but one child, naps are "free time". There are no obligations during naps. I could have sat on my behind and scratched every once in a while. Naps are catch-up. Those lovely liquid golden light afternoons when the house was quiet and with a sigh you sank into the couch, feet up, and closed your eyes briefly, drinking it in....

Maybe I romanticise a bit. Obviously, Safiya doesn't nap anymore, and hasn't for a while. So the words come at night, or in the middle of the afternoon, or while she watches the Zaboomafoo DVD from the library for the umpteenth time. But they still come. Sometimes they don't come for a while. I find it amazing that other blogs are so reliable. It's an admirable quality and one that, as a parent, mystifies me. She doesn't nap anymore. Our worlds change. Our timing changes. Our needs change. Here will change.


I suppose that's because here is personal. I like being here. In fact sometimes, when a post is done and it feels good, I'm not ashamed to say that I'll go back and re-read it. More than once. I'll go back an hour later and read it again. Maybe out loud. And even better, I get to converse with you out there to boot.

But part of it is, as they say, making time.


Part of getting older is learning how to make time stop. Or how to let it slide right around you. How to catch it in your hand when needed.

Time as partner, not adversary.

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Addendum: It is now 10:20 on Sunday night and I've finally finished this post. We've had a full day of cleaning, a friend's birthday party, and family to visit in the evening. As of today, the apples are sorted, the tree is un-solsticed, and the laundry has been caught up on. In fact, the dishes are done (thanks to Mr. S.) and there's even an apple cake in the fridge.

So it changes, so it goes......

7 comments:

Amy said...

You describe it so well - the way we make time for ourselves as mothers. It's a necessity. Your blog - my blog - all the personal blogs - they are only what we want them to be. No obligations - just a place to be.

craftymama said...

"i like the blanket-at-the-subway photo!" she says, as a she types with a sleeping baby on her lap.

Marnie said...

Amy - "just a place to be" - thanks for leaving a nice phrase as a reminder...

craftymama - oh, so many hours typing with one hand! :-)

Anonymous said...

cool. i feel honoured to be a fellow blanket-holder-for-the-picture with Safiya. i'm getting pretty good at that pose ;)

thanks for writing this. it gives me good feelings.

Anonymous said...

You really have a wonderful,positive way of putting things..Thanks for sharing the time you have;)

sweetie pie press said...

i never hit an age wherein i stopped napping. should i have?

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