What time zone do you live in? Atlantic, Eastern, Central,
Mountain, or Pacific? Some accuse me of living in the O-Zone at times. That's
okay, let them hurl their insults. Because where I am really dwelling at such
times is in the FREE-TIME ZONE.
Yes, that's what I said--the free-time zone. The zone
where schedules fly out the window and daydreaming zooms in. Time for
creativity and imagination to flow. Time to kickback and do absolutely nothing.
Summertime, one might think. But, alas, all too many are consumed by their
daytimer, even in the summer.
"Oh, wait a minute," my friend says over the
phone. "Let me grab my little black schedule book and see if I can squeeze
in a lunch date. Umm, I have to take Jenny to gymnastics camp tomorrow. And oh,
Johnny has a play date at the neighbor's
house on Friday. Maybe next week? Oh, wait a minute, we're going out of
town...."
"Uh, Mary," I break in on my friend's frantic
search through her day planner. "Just call me when you have a free moment
to go out somewhere and chat."
I hang up the phone and wonder, What is it about the new
millenium that requires play to be scheduled? Even today's kids have their
lives scheduled to the hilt. Free time just to be, to dream, to create is
scheduled away. And the sad part about it is that many parents think this
busyness is healthy, productive, and the best way to nurture their children's
growth and education. Well, God bless them. If this lifestyle is the legacy of
the baby boomer generation, then I want no part of it. Perhaps that hint of
rebellion in my spirit is one thing that led us to home school our kids.
Flexibility. Freedom to discover. Time for the girls to think their own
thoughts and form their own ideas, without someone constantly looking over
their shoulders or telling them what to think. Guidance, yes. Books, yes. An
occasional class or scheduled field trip, certainly. But in addition to all of
that, especially in the younger years, large doses of FREE TIME. For that is
what fosters great contributors to our society. Just look at Thomas Edison or
Albert Einstein. Enough said.
When I was growing up in the carefree, laid-back mountains
of Tennessee,
my friends and I roamed freely from neighborhood to neighborhood. Up hills.
Down hills. In the attic. Up trees. Down trees. Sometimes, we hid behind a
large bush and set up housekeeping. Or played tea party in the kitchen, sipping
"Kool-Aid tea" from tiny plastic cups and saucers. Later, we mixed
water with food coloring or "special" berries we had collected from
our mountain jaunts in our homemade laboratory in the tool shed. We could transform
just as easily into cops and robbers on our speeding bikes or construct a
"tent" with blankets between two chairs. In the evening, as the sun
slid quietly behind the mountain, we caught fireflies and collected them in
glass jars with holes in the lid. Late into the night, neighbors could hear us
hollering and running after the little illusive creatures, until our parents
called us in. Reluctantly, we trudged to the house with our jars, put them on
our bedroom shelves, and watched them flicker on and off as we drifted to
sleep.
The next day was just as eventful. Oh, nothing planned in
particular. No car rides to the zoo or soccer practice. Just idly lying in the
grass, making shapes out of the clouds overhead. Or rolling down the grassy
hill, until the world spun all around us. Then at dusk, as the sun crept behind
the mountain, we ran for our jars to see who could trap the most fireflies,
while our folks talked in the front yard about important things, like world
affairs and how they felt the President was doing running the country.
I'm so thankful my parents lived in the FREE-TIME ZONE.
They left a treasured legacy to me. There have been those moments when I have
cowered under the world's pressure to conform and move away from the free-time
zone. But I simply shake myself and remember that even though I am grown now
(though some would argue otherwise), I have not moved. I still live in the
free-time zone. And though many things require a schedule, much in life does
not. When I remember that, then I am free to stop and sniff a rose, sit on the
deck and dream, or stay in bed late and pull the covers over my own little
world. That is the stuff of greatness. Without it, folks suffocate, wither, and
the world spits out one carbon copy after another.
So, my dear and probably overly busy friend, what time
zone do you live in? If you feel captive to your time zone, why not break loose
from your schedule today and travel to the FREE-TIME ZONE, even if only for an
hour or two? You will come away refreshed and ready to tackle that day planner
again, maybe with some new ideas to implement.
