“Weekends are a bit like rainbows; they look good from a distance but disappear when you get up close to them.”
Our perception of time is hardly constant and never reliable. I remember when I was still going through school, the two months that we would get off during the summer felt like they lasted forever. These days, those two months fly by in a blur, because most of us are continuing to work at our regular jobs through July and August. Not much is different, aside from the extra sun outside and the occasional weekend barbecue.
And yes, weekends are much the same way. When you begrudgingly go back to work on Monday morning, the weekend feels so far away, but you can see it in the distance. You can sense the freedom that it represents. Friday afternoon can’t come soon enough, but before you know it, it’s already Sunday night and you have to start preparing for another work week. What happened?
This is the point brought up by American science-fiction writer John Shirley
To this end, perhaps one of the best lessons is that we should always strive to live in the moment and make the best of our current situation. We have to stop working for the weekend and start enjoying our weekdays. While there is certainly something to be said about delayed gratification, we also have to recognize the tremendous value that the journey along the way can provide. Indeed, if we get too focused on staring at that rainbow in the distance, we may forget to smell the roses along the way.
We could miss something far better… and life is much too short to let that happen. Perhaps we should forget about the reward and simply immerse ourselves in the experience instead.
I enjoy my full time job and now have a part time job that I only have to work 10 hours on the weekdays at a quality rate of pay. That makes is so that I can actually add some pleasures back into the weekdays, while having the weekends completely off for family or the side job or two if I feel I need to.
All weekends go much faster than I would want to, but that is I believe because as adults we are looking at what we need to do, what’s coming up. We have more responsibility which precludes us from our youthful thinking of not having a care in the world. This weekend for example went fast, but was enjoyable.
I was able to sleep in on Saturday an extra 2 hours to 7am, I got to cook breakfast for the family and play with the boys while Camille was at a party. I did a computer job for 3 hours Saturday night and Sunday just vegged out until we watched Despicable Me 2 on demand. Tonight will be the Oscars, so it was a fruitful weekend, but it still went faster than I wanted.