Thyme

Over the weekend I was asked, “What can I get you as a housewarming gift?” I get it. We, the love of my life and I, are difficult people to purchase gifts for. We didn’t have a wedding registry (*4) and we don’t make birthday gifts easy. And no, we’re not much for being on the receiving end of holiday gifts. There is little that we “need” and few things that we “want” that we don’t already have. We’re minimalistic in our possessions and collaborate heavily on our interior decoration decisions. 

At any rate, the question was asked and my response was simple: 

Time.

The answer was sparked by a crazy week (Who am I kidding? Month.), a few too many late nights, a string of early mornings, and the stress of a new job, a medical issue, hosting a dinner party, back-to-back weekends of family visits, etc. In short, life at full speed. I was exhausted and could have used another hour in the day, few minutes to catch my breath, and/or moment to think about anything other than what I had to do next. (If you read these entries weekly, I’ll note here that my delay in posting is due to any of the above.)

Pretty sure that the gift of time has been on my wishlist for awhile now. I recall back in my day at Inside Sports & Entertainment Group that I wrote an article for my chapter of Meeting Professionals International in which I described to planners that millennials (before that word was used in every other sentence) are looking for experiences… not stuff. Perhaps I was biased in my content marketing, but I stand by my statement. Experiences, or time spent doing something, is more important to “kids these days” than items. (Inside Sports & Entertainment Group provides travel packages to the major sporting and entertainment events.)

As I answered the question, I reflected back on my response. Some of the best gifts that I received (whether it was from a company or an individual) were experience-based: trips, gift cards, events… experiences. 

The thought on the table for a housewarming gift was Cable (::gasp:: we don’t have it!). But, as we discussed the suggestion, we realized that though it would help our futile attempts to position the antenna in the exact right spot on Friday nights to watch Shark Tank, we don’t often have the time to connect over dinner… and rarely have the time to actually watch the show when it airs. So why take the plunge when we can wait for television to catch-up with the rest of the app-world?

With regards to this entry, I didn’t actually get the time to think about it until well after my self-imposed due date. When I finally took a moment of silence to reflect, I realized how much I valued the time… and subsequently noticed that my thoughts as of late were full of “opera singing,” plans to be made, work to be done, and worries.

As the ancient Greeks might say, thyme gives you courage… but I’m thinking that one needs courage to take some thyme… err… time!