Time and money — these are two things that most people feel they never have enough of.
Well, there’s not a lot most of us can do about making significantly more money — high taxes and fees on ordinary people and low wages for honest work are the hallmarks of a “free market” capitalistic economy.
Time isn’t money — it’s far more important, and lasting, than that. Afternoon Tea Party, art print from Steve Henderson Collections
Time, too, is something that the grasping mega-corporate culture can’t take enough of. We live under the constant pressure and propaganda to work harder, faster, smarter and constantly. Despite this, however, there are still 24 hours in each day, and while “they” fill our hours with incessant demands, they do not yet own every one of them.
(Incidentally, it’s worth looking at our free time and addressing how many thinking moments we give to work, mindless entertainment, social media, “news,” politics and other mental drains that produce little but worry, anxiety, insecurity, and discouragement.)
The artwork, Afternoon Tea, focuses on one of the most important things we can do with our time: we spend it — invest it, really — into the people we care about. And these people tend to be our family (one of the richest, most valuable resources humanity has), neighbors, and friends. As we see the value of these beautiful people and bask in their company, we grow in depth and wisdom. Soon, we find that have more love to give, and extend beyond our smaller circle to a larger one.
At the tea party, a little girl, a trusted adult, and pink teddy bear spend an afternoon “doing nothing” (when we think of it in corporate America terms). But when we think of it from the perspective of truth and reality, they are doing much indeed.
They are together. They are sharing not only watery tea but stories and companionship. And they’re having fun.
Aren’t these some of life’s most precious gifts?
Indeed they are. And they are worth taking time to live, and enjoy.
Thank you for joining me at This Woman Writes. Posts complementing this one are
When You Live Smarter, Harder, Faster — You Don’t Live
Why Your Life on This Planet Means Something
This Woman Writes by Carolyn Henderson 
Great thoughts…I like this ‘We live under the constant pressure and propaganda to work harder, faster, smarter and constantly”..It is indeed propaganda for everyone thinks they are the only one not working hard and begin to feel guilty for taking ‘egads’…time off from work. Work? What is most work? It is simple a way to become indentured servants to the modern ‘rich’ as they pay us meager wages so we can then take those dollars and buy crap that they will simply forget about and eventually move to a storage shed, prior to ending up in a yard sale. We need to also question; do we really work more, or do most just put in the hours and provide an illusion of work while in actuality they most likely are on their phones, an act of modern day drool cascading from the brain. Sadly they ‘waste’ their valuable time with imbecilic games, and then shift to checking and re-checking the phones ‘just in case’ someone important responded to some mindless scrap of information or posted a ‘like’ to a selfie. Go up behind someone on their phone and watch them as they quickly scroll thru their phone screens looking for ‘something’…they put the phone down and unconsciously grab for it once more and ‘check’ …an addiction of the mind that has made them prisoners in their own self-created prison. Their valuable time is siphoned away, minute by minute….. lost in their self-created prison with zombie-like unawareness of their misplaced day, the opportunities to interact with a human, or nature…or simply to sit in solitude and reflect. Boredom is an intrinsic part of being a ‘human’ and one which is missed out on by many, as they fill time with ‘ important work so the company can make money and gouge the consumer, or critical time spent on the phone with stuff of ill substance. My thoughts turn to Benjamin Franklin and in his earlier days, way before he was a ladies man, he quit his printing press duties and decided to take time off, read…write and yes, hone in on his lady-man skills no doubt. But he ‘recognized’ the need to step back and live life, not live to work, and certainly in his day, not to live to be on the phone. He conceptualized the idea of what to do at a Walden’s Pond before Henry David Thoreau wrote of it. Today, even if we forced everyone to go to Walden’s Pond could they be successful by only having ‘time’ and nothing but? Could they last a week, a day…an hour..15 minutes or 5 with just themselves to be with. I doubt it….
We have wrongfully disciplined ourselves to waste time by pretending we are working….pretending we are communicating…pretending we are here for social good of others…. yet in common practice we continue to propagate our indenturedness to the elite and cheapen our human existence and time on this earth with a forged presence of actually ‘living life’….rather than actually being on Walden’s Pond and being labeled as a human. I am a Human….I can think.
Excellent thoughts, Jim — an essay of which Henry David Thoreau would approve. I like that thought about checking and rechecking phones — “An addiction of the mind that has made them prisoners in their ow self-created prison.” It’s so vital that we think, reason, question our way out of the mire — and from the perspective of the elite, it’s why it’s so very important to keep us checking our phones, going to the movies, watching the news, fighting over who is liberal and who is conservative — as if the major aspect of the party elite — making money and lots of it — were not their most significant point in common.
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