In the Meantime: "Insignificant Moments"

Recently I met a friend for lunch, and we were talking about our different projects. As we were sharing, I realized something I had yet to have expressed, even to myself, regarding this magic period of time, in the meantime. I realized that when we say, IN THE MEANTIME, we speak of it as a throwaway time period. It seems to me that we speak of it in the same throwaway way as we might say, whatever, or but. We don’t count that time as having importance. It is almost as if it doesn’t exist. In the meantime is a transitional period of time in which the little pieces of life come together. If we really think about it, many parts of our days and weeks involve what we may term, in the meantime.

I could say something like, I am writing a book, and in the meantime, I...

Or we could say, I am getting ready for work, and in the meantime, I...

Or we could say, I am getting ready to go to the store, or to cook something, and/or until I go, there is a period of time which is not disclosed, talked about, or even examined, which involve these transitional times. What do we do and what do we think about while we are getting ready for work or to go to the store or getting ready to write or getting ready to go out, etc.? Maybe we do what we call piddle paddling. We are doing this and that. We are doing and living possibly, an unconscious time period which we don’t really think about or pay much attention to. Are we planning or organizing, are we vegging, are we checking out; it could be anything, but are we paying attention to what we are doing, or are we even counting these times as times that count for us in our day?

This is so interesting to me. As I think about this some more, I realize that I don’t often count them as things I did during the day. In fact, I don’t think about them. It as if those minutes didn’t count, They remind me of charm bracelets. In charm bracelets, we usually pay attention to the charms, but we often don’t look at the chains and connections that attach one charm to another. And, the charms wouldn’t be able to go around our wrist as an adornment if they weren’t attached to a chain and attached to each other in some way. In the meantime as the connections between charms. What a lovely idea. Suddenly they mean something and aren’t just time that didn’t exist in our memories.

As I think about meantimes as the connectors and connections, this makes sense to me. I liken it to how we connect as people. Imagine what happens when we have a conversation with a friend or partner or child or colleague, and we don’t ask them questions, we talk to them. A dialogue doesn’t exist, and curiosity becomes absent. There is no punctuation. Life is so much more interesting with what connects us to ourselves and each other. Life is about connections and as such, we can live so much more vital, authentic and happy lives.

Exercise:

So, what happens inside of when we think about life as living in connection to us and others and events? Let's take a few minutes and think about our day with this consciousness. What did you do today? Think about getting ready in the morning, maybe making your morning coffee or tea, getting your child up and ready for school while getting ready for yourself, gathering your things, walking your dog, and so on. Carry on in this manner in your mind's eye throughout the day. Connect the dots. How were your conversations? How much time did you spend in those little time periods throughout the day? Let all those little times count and little smiles at people you passed, or moments of irritation, or moments lost where maybe you didn’t ask that question or give thanks, or acknowledge your feelings to someone. Perhaps a time when you were organizing your briefcase or thinking about the meeting coming up….Also, add up the walking times and driving times. Now imagine your day in your mind adding up all these little times and think about your day in the context of the full day. Feel or think about your day without those little connector times. How was it for you. Now, feel or think about your day with those connections. What is the difference?