Most of our lives are governed by the clock each day and, whether we like it or not, we become bound by our schedules from an early age. For three decades now, every hour of every weekday day has been regulated for me. While my life has been eventful and exciting and often surprising, the daily routine has generally been planned and deliberate and somewhat predictable.
There is nothing wrong with the predictable. Predictability can be wonderfully reassuring and it is, after all, intrinsic to design. We need the comfort of each season following the other in an unceasingly predictable pattern, just as we are reassured that the day must predictably follow the night.
Still, it is an exciting prospect to become liberated from the clock and it is a discovery of a sort, to follow where my mind takes me. I no longer set the alarm each night. I choose when I will read or write or call a friend. I decide if I will walk outside or curl up on the couch with a cup of tea to watch a favorite film. It is wonderful to buy groceries in the quiet of a Monday morning. It is delightful to savor a beloved book in the garden bathed in early afternoon sunshine. These would once have been guilty pleasures, but it is another kind of freedom now…
