525600 minutes are in a year (yes, you can sing, my fellow RentHeads). That means there is 43800 minutes in a month, 10080 in a week and 1440 in a day…ok, ok that’s enough math.
We’re mid-pandemic and most of us are working from home unless we’re an essential worker. Before this happened we all wished for a break; to be able to slow down. In a crazy way, our wish was granted. Before, my daughter begged to be homeschooled, because she missed me during the day and she missed her brother. But, if she was kept home from school sick, she was begging to go back to school.
Now, I’m home with her for 1440 minutes every day. How do I spend that time teaching her school work, letting her play, cleaning the house, cooking, doing laundry, and trying to make sure she and her brother don’t kill one another over legos? There are lazy days of course where not much of anything gets done and then there are days where we are outside and having so much fun we forget lunchtime.
There are only so many minutes in a day, and since we’ve started quarantine I’ve been trying to be more conscious of the time and more cognizant of what it is we are doing that is productive, because let’s be honest we’ve all gotten lost in the social media hole and lost time that could have been better spent.
I’ve been reading to my kids more and not just the usual “Hungry Caterpillar” or “How to Track a Truck” and “Moonpowder” but more sensitive books to what’s going on around us. We’ve been reading “Lovely”, “The Lonely Dragonfly”. “A is for Awesome” and “The Day You Begin”. I’ve been more thoughtful and direct with my words, I’ve been talking about race more with my kids and about the helpers in the community. We’re talking about how not one person is perfect and not one person is better than someone else; at the end of the day, we want to focus on the good and the teachable moments in our house.
I have a cousin who is a PA (Physician’s Assistant) in NYC working on the COVID team and we also have a cousin who is a police officer in a small town. They use their 10080 minutes each week literally saving lives and trying to serve the community. They see the best of the best and the worst of the worst, they’ve seen abuse and racism but they continue to do their jobs and do them well to help others, to drive out hate and sickness, and to find a place that’s good and healthy.
525600 minutes doesn’t seem like a lot of time, but it’s really just enough to do what’s right. It’s enough time to educate others, open our arms, and do better.
