Take the time to take time

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a sweet little coffee break at Folk on a recent road trip
 
When choosing to live passionately, to do our good, to dream big and commit to the hard work that those dreams require, it can happen that in amongst well-intentioned plans, we fall into the trap of being busy for the sake of being busy. We can allow 'I don't have time' to become our mantra and the pace of our lives to become unnecessarily hectic without necessarily being any more fruitful. I want life to the full, not just a full diary. I want to work towards the future whilst paying homage to the beautiful wonder of the ordinary present. I want to live purposefully and to take responsibility for taking the time to take time, which is why this little passage spoke to me:

Take the time to talk to the elderly lady next door, to read a book, to walk to work instead of riding the subway when it's a beautiful day. Take the time to escape for a weekend with friends.

Take the time to listen and to get to know yourself. Take the time to change, to grow, to rest. Take the time to say yes, take the time to say no. Take the time to be quiet. Take the time to look after your body, to eat well. Take the time to ask yourself who you are and what you want.

Call your grandmother on her birthday and rinse your hair with cold water just like she taught you, listen to your children, breathe deeply, take the time to make fresh-squeezed orange juice for breakfast, to go to a museum, to go for a stroll in the woods and listen to the sounds of tiny creatures in the grass. In summer, take the time to compile a scrapbook of pressed flowers with a child, to read him a story.

Take the time to take time because nobody else will do it for you.

from 'How To Be Parisian: Wherever You Are' by Anne Berest , Caroline de Maigret , Audrey Diwan and Sophie Mas
 

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