Meaningful Use of Time

I find that more and more I understand why I want to work. There are a lot of miniscule reasons. Below I've listed a few of them:

1) I like having money to do things
2) I like doing things with my grandchildren and my children
3) I like being able to drop a dollar in the Salvation Army Bucket
4) I like saying yes at the check-out stand when asked, "Would you like to donate a dollar to...."
5) I like being able to go to a store and pick out some paint and new curtains and redo a room
6) I like having things to keep me busy
7) I like social interaction
8) I need something to keep me busy while my husband is off to work

I volunteer work at www.new.FamilySearch.org doing indexing of various records: census, (ship) passenger lists, community projects, civil registrations, draft registration cards, county marriage records, etc. I feel these things give me purpose or rather value. I'm doing something good, at my expense and in my leisure, expecting nothing in return.

This is good, but for me it is not enough. I can only sit to do about three to four batches when I HAVE to have a break.

Another thing I do which I feel adds value to my existence is making birthday cards for the ladies within my ward boundaries. That equates to about 200 cards per year. Each one takes about two hours to create, craft and assemble. Funny that once the cards are mailed I don't think another thing about it until someone comes up to me a week (or two) later and thanks me for it. That happens with about 10% of the cards I create.

I feel it's important to keep my creative juices flowing. These two activities help in this manner, however, they are not enough. I LOVE playing with my grandkids. Doing things with them, interacting with them, the older and the younger ones. Love taking one out to the movies-best thing in the world.

This is still not enough. There are so many hours in the day and I need something else. Can't be just anything. I worked for a company about a year and a half but found little value in working there. Working at my current job..... This is where I feel value. The whole company revolves around helping others have health, wealth and abundance. Being a part of such a value system gives me value.

D (my nearly nine-year old grandson) was playing the Wii just yesterday and said, "Come play with me." We were waiting for grandpa to get home and then we were going to go ride Front Runner, the new train line for public transportation in Utah County. While waiting, he was playing on the Wii and I was working on my Christmas cards. Oh, they're all made. I finished them last August or September. I just needed to address them and write a message or simply sign each of them. So I say to D that I'm happy to work on my cards beside him so he won't be alone, but that I don't really want to play. He then, being the precocious little lad he is asks, "Why don't you want to play?"

Excellent question-which brings me to the conclusion and purpose behind this blog. It's quite simple. "Everyone has only 24 hours in each day and only 60 seconds in each minute. As you age you realize you have fewer days ahead of you than you have behind you. You begin to decide that each minute you have needs to be meaningful or it is wasted. For me sending Christmas cards out to friends and family is more meaningful than playing a game. Working on these beside you as you play is more meaningful than being in my warm comfy craft room working on them."

It's all about our value system, what we find meaningful, what defines us, what gives us meaning, and what we feel adds value to life, to our existence.