Create Free Time

I had a task today. Besides the other numerous, admittedly more important, daily tasks that I needed to accomplish, I had to finish my book-club book. I’m surprised that it took me until now to finish reading it. I’m generally a fast reader and usually stuffed in the empty pockets of time, is a little “me” and my book. Well at least that’s the way it used to be. Before I was a “Mommy”, “Wife” and “Doctor”, I was a little girl who insisted on reading by the nightlight of her clock radio. It seems that because there wasn’t enough time during daylight hours to get in all that glorious reading, I am willing to exchange sleep for stories.

But as I got older, responsibility slowly crept in. Reading for pleasure slunk out just as slowly, and I never really noticed that they swapped places. One day I just woke up and it was different. My free time was about cleaning, cooking and mothering, and my professional life was about doctoring and writing. Not a lot of reading for fun was going on here! That is until book clubs entered my life! I love a good book club. I’m not talking about the book clubs organized on TV but the real personal get together kind. You know, the “talk about your life and kids and did anyone really read the book?” kind of book clubs! I’m in a new one now, but it’ll have to do magic tricks to beat the last one. We would meet over lunch and there was always a good book and raucous, bawdy laughter with a glass of red wine thrown in to step it up a notch! It saved me.

So in anticipation of book club tonight, I awoke at 4:30am and plotted gleefully how I was to accomplish this task. I told myself it was rude to show up at book club having not read the book – by the way, I’ve done this before and no one seemed to care. Once I said that, I now had an obligation to other people and (imagine this) space opened up and the book got read! Hmmph. I had to create free time. Free time is there, the trick is to find it. It’s there for you too. It may be lurking under the pile of clothing and dirty dishes but it’s there.

In my case I found free time on the way to work. I pulled off the road in an empty parking lot. I only had about 30 minutes but there I sat on a little slab of concrete, the ocean filling my entire view and I read. I leaned back in my seat, opened the door and felt the humid breeze. I pushed from my mind the wash sitting in the washing machine and the busy morning clinic about to commence. I allowed myself that which I would give freely to others: free time, to enjoy. I once again was a little girl, sitting in my pocket of time.

Sheila Cason, MD