It's About Time

"Time flies... It's up to you to be the navigator." I came across this quote earlier this week, and it reflected some of my recent thoughts. Today is day two of a requirement that I stay off my feet for up to 5 days...not something I adjust happily to, but it does give me the bonus of "down time". More on the reason for this untimely restriction later. For now, I'm taking this bonus downtime as an opportunity to put together another blog entry - about time. Until my recent confinement, my reflections on time were about the time commitment of the Camino, both in terms of prep time and in terms of time away. I am now adding some thoughts about planned and unplanned use of time.

Time really is a limited commodity - a realization that may be a little late in coming to me, but true nevertheless. Time does not always expand to meet the need, and in fact there are actually only 24 hours in a day (unless you're crossing time zones, in which case what you gain going one way you will almost invariably lose going the other way). So why the new obsession with time? In short, walking takes time (again, a surprising insight given that it's taken 57 years to gain this realization, but better late than never). This all translates to the fact that the walking required for preparation - or at least the level of preparation we are comfortable with - is taking a fair bit of time. For me this is primarily weekend time - time I would normally use in other ways.  In the summer I like to use weekend for getaways - and in May I had several; one to Kelowna, one to Santa Barbara, one surprise getaway to Saltspring, and one to Calgary. These were all important and lovely family connection times - but they did interfere with my walking time. Add in the general home maintenance requirements (cleaning, groceries, etc.), and a wish to maintain at least a minimal connection with friends, and the end result is that finding the time for those walks - which require at least 4 hours - becomes a challenge. In fairness, Geoff has taken on a lot of the maintenance, so my load has lightened significantly in that area, but all of this has made me think more about the choices I make regarding my free time.

In terms of the time required for the Camino itself - this, too has triggered some thoughts. We made the decision last fall to commit to a six week window. When thinking a year in advance, this made complete sense. This would mean that Geoff would need to add some extra time into his regular work schedule so that he could add the extra days to his vacation. For me, it meant that the majority but not all of my vacation time would be dedicated to this one event (I had some time to carry over from the previous year, so that was helpful). As the time for our trip approaches, the implications of that time commitment come out in different ways. Despite our best intentions, there will only be one camping trip this summer - we don't have the time to expand our weekends into long weekends, and our focus on the weekends does have to be our training. Planning for six weeks away from work is also, for me at least, showing itself as more of a challenge than it seemed it would be, with several critical events all converging on the time that I will be away (this will serve to reinforce the fact that I am not indispensable, which is always a good reminder).

And then there's the topic of planned and unplanned time. We had a lovely weekend planned...starting with a training hike (full packs) up and over Mt. Doug (twice), taking in "Quartet" at the Cinecenta, biking and lunch with Ted and Sue, and dinner with Caitlin. Then my knee decided to give me a message - we don't always get to do what we thought we were going to do. I am uninjured but unable to walk...hmmm...what does this mean for the Camino? I'm taking it to mean that with all these reflections on time, and how I choose to use it, sometimes we don't actually get as much of a choice as we thought, so when we do, we should maximize our choices. I am a couch potato and not happy about it, but I am enjoying having the time to put some of my thoughts together...something I seem not to have been able to find the time for in any other way.