Only So Much Pie

Thanksgiving is just a week away. A day dedicated to gratitude, it’s my favorite holiday. Thanksgiving conveys the warmth of the season without the stress of gifting…whom to buy for? where to hide the treasures? and where it will all get stowed come December 26!? And Thanksgiving has me thinking about pie.

Pie has many delightful qualities. Homemade pie is the universal comfort food. Pie evokes memories. It is both commonplace and special. But, pie does have its limitations. The most fundamental of which is that there is only so much pie in a pie. Sure, you can cut it into several small pieces. But restore it to its original shape…and you still only have one pie.

I have come to learn that my day works the same way. Whether I think of it as 24 hours, 1440 minutes, or 86,400 seconds, it’s still only one day. Try as I might, it will not be stretched. Time is finite.

This is significant because the demands on our time are ever increasing…as are the drains of our time. Being intentional about how we spend our “time pie” has never been more necessary. With the flexibility that smart phones and other digital living now affords us, it’s easy to operate under the illusion that we can continue to add activity to our days with impunity. We check email while waiting in a grocery line, take phone calls from our car, and listen to podcasts while we exercise. We continue to lessen the margins between events and tend to dismiss the importance of down time.

But, time is finite.

I am not condemning modern conveniences or conventions; I am simply advocating for remembering to be a prudent steward of your time pie. We all need time to rest and recharge. We need time to learn and be challenged. We need time to love and be loved. This means that some times we have to say no to something that, if we had more time, could be a fruitful addition to our lives.

Saying no to things you don’t want to do is simple. Saying no to things you might want to do is more difficult. With practice, choosing what matters to you most gets easier.

Like a pie, every day is both commonplace and special. We are best served if we are intentional as we portion it out.