5 Minutes

I woke up late for work this morning.  Well, later than I would have preferred to wake up.  My work schedule is really flexible.  However, I drive 90 minutes to work and 90 minutes back home.  Add 180 minutes on the road to a workday that fluctuates anywhere between 360-480 minutes per day, and you may understand why I do not like getting up later than I should.

What can I do though?  I cannot turn back time to wake up at 4:00AM.  So as 6:30AM rolled around, I finally rolled myself out of bed.  I showered, shaved, brushed my teeth, and dressed.  The time was 6:45AM by the time I finished.  If I left had left at that time I would then arrive at work around 8:15AM.

However, another variable comes into play to my time formula: the toddler.  Last night while I was away from home visiting with friends, my soon-to-be-2 year-old proceeded to terrorize my wife.  We are talking full blown WWE™ Extreme Rules© terrorizing.  Hand slaps to her face which caused her glasses to fly off, objects thrown, and complete temper meltdown were my son’s weapons of choice.  As I was in the shower this morning, he woke up in the same mood.

Finally dressed and ready to leave, my ill-tempered soon-to-be-2 year-old son came towards me reaching up with his little arms.  I picked him up and he proceeded to melt himself onto my shoulder as he draped his arms around my neck.  I looked at the clock, my wife looked at me and pleaded, “Why don’t you sit him a bit?”

I looked at the clock.  I looked at her.

“I’m late already,” I replied.  “What’s 5 more minutes?”

I sat on our glider and rocked him.  He turned to face the TV and leaned back against me; comfortable.  He was clam.  Maybe that 5 minutes was all he needed to make his day better.

What are 5 more minutes worth to someone?

Perhaps 5 more minutes of showing our love, our compassion, our respect to others would make all the difference in our world today.  Maybe if we took 5 minutes out of our busy life to eat a bowl of cereal with our kids than they would feel more important to us than a 9-to-5 job.  What if we took 5 minutes out of our time to buy Homeless Joe a cup of joe?  A meal? 

Would we make a difference?  Would 5 minutes make all the difference?

Society has us moving at such a fast pace reacting to this issue and that issue.  We become so focused on issues that most of the time are out of our control that we neglect to spend time on what really is most important in life.

Could you spare 5 more minutes?  Can I?

Stop reading this right now.  Turn your computer, your smart device, whatever you are using turn it off.  Spend 5 minutes with someone who actually needs you.

Until next time…