It’s Monday, and I take today off. What does that exactly mean? Well, I love what I do, which is ministry. I cannot really take a day off from ministry because it is who I am and what I do. It is not a job. It is not tasks and daily activities.

What I mean when I say I take a day off is that I spend time just being. I let go of the tasks of life that I think “must” get done and I tell myself that I’m just relaxing today. I spend time meditating, reading, playing with my husband, writing, and doing all the things I love to do without the pressure of getting anything done.

We all need this kind of time off, and I trust we all take it for ourselves. It took me four years here on Kaua’i to realize I had enough time to take a day off. That’s crazy, right? Why would we tell ourselves we don’t have enough time to take care of ourselves? I think it is because we think time is limited. We think we have to get things done and if we let go for one moment of “our schedule” things might just fall apart and not get done.

This is so untrue. Once a friend and mentor of mine said, “Rita, you need to take that day off. And, if you think you can’t, that is when you need it the most.” I took her advice and it was the best advice ever. Since that time, I’ve never lost any time and everything always gets done.

Time really is an illusion. It expands and contracts according to our relationship with it. I know that time is necessary on this planet Earth, but I also know that we should never let it control us. We should be the directors of our time and schedules. I think that time should be my friend, not something I am always catching up with and trying to stretch. It shouldn’t be something that causes stress in my life.

When I look at time differently, it reacts to me differently. Even being held up in traffic and thinking I’m going to be late for a meeting doesn’t serve me. When that traffic jam happens, I simply take a deep breath and let myself know that I am always in perfect time. I am always on time. At times, I’ve made a phone call to say I think I might be a few minutes late. I take a deep breath and relax. Then, what I find, is that I arrive on time or early.

Time is an illusion. We can either tell ourselves we have plenty of time, or we can always be rushing against the clock. One will bring us stress, and the other will bring us a relaxed sense of being. I prefer to be relaxed.

Oh, and just because we live in Hawaii, doesn’t mean we necessarily “hang loose.” So, don’t point a finger and say, “You live in Paradise.” I’ve met just as many stressed people here as anywhere. It’s all a state of mind and it is up to us to make up our mind to live in time – with plenty of it.

Love and Aloha,

Rev. Rita