| Time well spent
Multi-tasking and over-achieving? Make a
list of your everyday miracles and the other stuff won’t
matter.
By Leigh Koebert ’97
 am
tired of magazine articles promising hundreds of ways to use those “wasted” minutes
at the supermarket, doctor, while stuck in traffic or in line at
some overpriced coffee shop. Apparently, we are supposed to feel
more fulfilled and efficient writing out bills while commuting and
checking e-mail while on both the cell phone and home phone.
Once I was part of the frenzied masses, scanning those articles and
traveling between my home, my job in Philadelphia and Rowan University
in an SUV triathlon of sorts. Speeding down endless miles of asphalt,
I felt myself tensing up, ready to do battle, while convincing myself
that I enjoyed the ride. After all, this was my twenties, a decade
of major accomplishment, of ticking big items off my to-do list.
After surviving as a commuter student for longer than I care to admit,
I finally earned my communication degree and a much-anticipated promotion
at work. Note to self: Be happy. You have achieved two biggies on
your list!
Yet, despite the thrill of accomplishment, something was missing.
I found the missing piece in the form of a 6-pound little girl, who,
by sheer virtue of making her appearance into this world, convinced
me that it would be much more fun to trade my E-Z Pass for a zoo
pass. Three and a half years later, I still stand happily by my decision.
Like millions before me, I joined the ranks of the barely sleeping
or showering and yawned my way through the first six months of my
daughter’s life. It felt like a huge accomplishment just to
go grocery shopping.
The months passed, sleep increased and things got much easier. I
really enjoy what I do without the pressures of an outside job (I
run a home-based business) and just the daily, adapt-or-crumble life
of a mom.
When my husband’s best friend Fred suddenly died last November,
my view of the world changed again. The enormity of Fred’s
loss weighed in my every breath as I tried in vain to understand
the death of a 39-year-old father of three. As friends do, we came
together again and again in the next few weeks to shed tears and
tell “Fred” stories over what seemed like endless plates
of lasagna and comfort food. Unbelievably, a few months later my
husband almost lost his life. After two surgeries, he was physically
fine but we were both worn out, stressed out and humbled by another
major reality check.
During those dark days, I kept thinking of the Nikos Kazantzakis
quote, “Happiness is an everyday miracle, like water, and we…are
not aware of it.” We had to embrace the positives in our lives:
we were breathing, enjoying our wonderful daughter and receiving
enormous support from our families and friends.
Somehow it is the painful times, the things that we don’t understand,
that are essential to our growth. We can’t control much of
what happens to us but we can find the everyday miracles in our lives.
They are there. I promise.
I’ve come up with a multitude of new ways to fill my days and
feel a sense of accomplishment. A refrigerator door covered
with crayon portraits and my daughter’s belly laughs and smiles
assure me more than any other point in my life that my time is very
well spent.
______________________________
Leigh Koebert has been published in Reader’s Digest and Good
Old Days magazine. She lives in Waterford Township with her
husband and daughter.
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