How quickly can you recall – with some specificity - what you did yesterday? Sure, you can probably do it, but how long will it take you?
How about last Thursday?
If you're like me, you spend a lot of energy responding to responsibilities of the moment, while stressing (at least a bit) about things yet to come. This makes most of life, whatever’s in the rear-view mirror, meld into a blur. One hour becomes virtually indistinguishable from another, one day runs into the next. We're managing. But we can do better.
Chassidic thought encourages us to take charge of our time and imbue each hour with meaning, making sure that our days really count.
Chassidism calls it "counting hours," similar to the way one countis precious diamonds, because we can – and should - make our time remarkable.
Here’s how it works: Think of your next hour as an empty vessel waiting to be filled. You get to choose how it will be used. If you make the hour’s character special, the hour will become significant; it’ll live on. It’s possible for a specific moment to become an outstanding slice of time; a development too special to lose its resonance in life’s overwhelming blur.
It’s not just that what happened is memorable, it’s that it mattered and made a meaningful contribution to your world.
If my days are meaningfully spent, I’ll know it. Life will feel full, and it won't matter whether I can remember exactly what I did at noon last Tuesday.
If we consciously recognize an hour as a time during which we are fulfilling G-d's intent in our creation - whether we spend it working to provide for our families or reading something inspiring on Chabad.org - we have done something remarkable. We will have actively chosen to make that hour a vehicle for purposeful living, aligning our lives with G-d’s intent in our very existence.
While it may not be apparent to the onlooker, choosing to meaningfully fill your time fulfills it Eternal Meaning.
Can time be any better spent?