You have time

When I finished one of the day’s jobs, the customer asked if I wanted a cup of coffee. I politely declined and explained that I had to head to my next appointment. He smiled at me and said:

“Oh yes, you have time.”

And of course, he was right.

Sure, I had another customer to get to, but it really wasn’t that urgent. There was room for a Swedish fika moment.

We sat down in the garden. He brought out freshly brewed coffee and homemade cookies. It turned into a truly lovely moment — and the cookies were delicious.

It’s so easy to fall into the habit of playing the “no time” card. Often, it’s just out of routine. Always focused on the next thing.

Sometimes we say yes, but we’re not really there. Our minds are already somewhere else — and it shows. There’s a rushed look in our eyes, and we don’t quite take in what our dear fellow human is saying.

But it doesn’t have to be like that. We do have time — just like today’s customer reminded me.

We have time to sit down for a fika. We have time to pause and chat with the neighbor. You have time to read this blog post without thinking about all the other unread texts in your feed reader.

They say time is money. If that’s true, then we’re living pretty poor lives if we go around believing we never have any.