Killing Time

It is already the first weekend of the month. I hope that everyone has a good one, spent with family and friends. As for me and my family, it's going to be the usual weekend where we just relax and spend time together. No special trips this weekend though, we are saving that up on the third week because we are expecting friends over the weekend. I wonder where we're going to take them... Hmmm... But we are going out later for our monthly prayer meeting for the Blessed Virgin Mary.

My hands are full today but I am feeling restless. And when I feel restless, I know that I have to stay still for a few minutes and quiet down. My little red book entitled Hearts On Fire (Praying with the Jesuits) has always been handy in moments like this.

While browsing through the pages of this beloved book, I coincidentally chanced upon this prayer by Leo Rock, SJ. A lovely prayer that talks about how man kills time.

Killing Time

How do I kill time?
Let me count the ways.

By worrying about things
over which I have no control.
Like the past.
Like the future.

By harboring resentment
and anger
over hurts
real or imagined.

By disdaining the ordinary
or, rather, what I
so mindlessly
call ordinary.

By concern over what's in it for me,
rather than what's in me
for it.

By failing to appreciate what is
because of might-have-beens,
should-have-beens,
could-have-beens.

These are some of the ways
I kill time.

Jesus didn't kill time.
He gave life to it.
His own.

A very beautiful prayer don't you agree? It made me think twice because most of the ways to kill time that is mentioned in the prayer are applicable time. It overwhelms me to learn that I have been killing time all along... I did not do it intentionally though because I mean well. Thanks to this prayer, I am now made conscious of all my petty concerns and selfish interests. I have to work on not killing my time anymore. For my own peace of mind.

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