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 Wednesday?
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 in the rear-view mirror meld into a blur, one hour virtually indistinguishable from another, one day running into the next.
Yes, we're managing, but life should be about more than staying afloat. Humdrum, unspectacular hours just fade into the past.
What to do?
Chassidic thought encourages us to pro-actively take charge of our time and imbue each hour with meaning, making sure that our days really count.
So let's make our time remarkable.
Chassidic though suggests an attitude called "counting hours."
Think of your next hour as a vessel waiting to be filled. It's neutral time, and you get to choose how it will be used.
If you make this hour's character special, the hour will become significant; it'll live on.
It's possible for a day or hour's special events to make it an outstanding slice of time, a time too distinct to just blend in to life's blur.
But it's about more than memory.
After all, what if you learned an important life-lesson years ago, yet can't remember the hour and day during which you learned the lesson? Does that really matter? Doesn't that day live on with you, since its content echoes into your present life?
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 you consciously recognize this next hour as an hour during which you are fulfilling G‑d's intent in your creation - whether you spend it working to provide for your family or reading something inspiring on Chabad.org - you have done something remarkable. You have proactively chosen to make this hour a vehicle for purposeful living; you will have aligned your life with G‑d's intent in creating you.
While it may not be apparent to the onlooker, you've filled your hour with Eternal Meaning.
Can time be any better spent?
