A couple of weeks ago I slept with my watch on accidentally broke my watch's metal band.
This should not have been a problem because I always slept with my watch on own three other beautiful watches:
1. My grandfather's pocket watch, a true art deco antique, which I wore on a gold chain for my wedding as my "something old." All I have to do is wind it and the thing keeps on ticking. Just like in the Timex commercials! However, you have to wind it at least 50 times. Who has the time for that?
2. My father's watch. It works fine when you wind it, but the clasp doesn't work and I was afraid I'd lose it.
3. Another watch which I thought worked but never wear. I found out why I don't wear it. It must have died in the drawer a while ago, neglected and lonely. I put it in the donation box in the recycling room.
So I took my watch to the jewellery store in the mall to send to the manufacturer to fix. This was right before Christmas. I had to wait 10 days to get it back.
Ten days of not being able to time how long something cooked. (Needless to say, I forgot to update the oven clock every time the power went off so it was hopelessly wrong.)
Ten days of not knowing how late I was for anything.
At first it was frustrating and I had to find various ways to work around it.
I put my (working) father's watch on the bathroom counter.
I turned on the tv even if I wasn't interested in the program, just to check the time in the upper right corner.
I asked M what time it was. Constantly.
However, there were advantages to being Timeless.
As long as I didn't have any appointments that day, I could just relax and go at a more leisurely pace.
Sure, I was still busy all day. (I'm the equivalent of a personal support worker to my husband.) There was laundry, dishes, and meals and medications to prepare.
But I forgave myself if I didn't do all the chores.
I kicked out the voice of the Mean Home Ec Teacher who lived in my head, criticizing me. She was (and probably still is) a perfectionist. Well, I didn't need to be.
I decided that there would be a new way to do things. I asked myself:
- Must I do this? (If not, forget it!)
- If so, must I do this NOW? (If not, I'll postpone and do something else. Something fun.)
- If I need to do this NOW, how can I break it into manageable little pieces?
It was a revelation. I'm much more relaxed now that MHET has been evicted. I even somehow found the time to write and submit a few short non-fiction pieces.
I have my watch back now.
But I hope the new me I discovered when I was Timeless will remain.
Time is on my side.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oSRvcdlgSI
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