“If I could put time in a bottle….” Do you remember that song? From somewhere in my childhood growing up in the 1970’s, this song lingers in my brain with its haunting lyric of idyllic longing.
The precious commodity of time has been a recurring theme in my reading and in my life this week. Both of the books I am reading by Frances Mayes (her latest, A Year in the World and an earlier work, Bella Tuscany) reference time in quality and quantity as critical components to her travels and life choices. In 2001, Frances and her husband Ed left tenured professorships to travel abroad, visiting all the sites they had ever always wanted to visit “someday.” After the death of a parent, a few friends, and several struggles with cancer among her friends, they decided someday was now or never.
Bella Tuscany takes place a couple of years earlier when for the first time, she and Ed can spend more than just a summer or Christmas holiday at their home in Cortona, Italy. They take a six month sabbatical and arrive in early March to spend their first spring in Tuscany. A line from her preface says it all: “I came to Italy expecting adventure. What I never anticipated is the absolute joy of everyday life—la dolce vita” (xii).
Italians live life differently than Americans. Many would say they live it better. It has a lot to do with how they approach time. Time for a sumptuous meal. Time for friends and for family. Time for a hand-made pair of shoes or a tailored Armani suit.
Time is an essential ingredient for all that is worthwhile. Its quantity inextricably tied to quality.
I do not collect time in a bottle. Everyday the hourglass of time sifts me one moment at a time, at a rate of 24 hours a day—no more and no less. What I do with that time is collected in the mind’s book of memories or it fades to nothingness and meaninglessness.
The time ahead of me still seems like a vast reservoir of opportunity. My grandmother lived to be 90; I am 42. I’m not even halfway there yet. But the number of my days is not guaranteed. I am keenly aware that I have only a few years with my children at home.
What I want is la dolce vita—to find the sweetness in the everyday, whatever the season of my life.
1 comment:
it's as if YOU'VE spent 3 yrs there - nicely captured!
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