If I could Turn Back Time

                                                                    Picture credit: Pixabay (free)

There’s a time to stop and a time to start, a time to change and a time to decide…

The sound of Cher belting out her powerful song of regret and loss has been spinning round in my head. Can you hear it too? I don’t know what inspired the lyrics, but the desire to turn back time is a repeated human experience. 

This month’s blog came around quickly. Fortunately, I had an extra day in February to play with, so whilst women were busy finding men to propose to, I used it to write this blog. Extra time is a rare gift, so if makes an appearance, we should gladly accept it. I plan to do the same with the next extra day in 2028. I’m already looking forward to it, but it’s a long time to wait for a few extra hours. If any of the parties bidding for seats at the general election can pledge an extra day every month, they’ve got my vote. I promise to use it well.

I split my working time between two distinct areas, but I’ve had a growing and persistent urge to simplify things. When our feelings are persistent, we ought to take notice of them. Maybe, just maybe, they're trying to tell us something. I’m cringing at the irony of saying this to you. As a matter of routine, I try hard to ignore my feelings until they pass! Of course, sometimes that’s the right thing to do. Feelings aren’t always the most reliable of friends.

Doing different jobs was interesting, but also distracting and time consuming, and neither of them got my best. The problem was my head and heart weren't in alignment with the prospect of making any changes. After a lifetime in public service, walking away from a secure and interesting government appointment was a tough decision to make. To me, the role in question wasn’t about paying the bills, it was more about the sense of identity that work gives me.

After a lot of unseemly tussling and time wasting, the heart eventually emerged victorious, and I offered my resignation. Hurrah for the heart! For twenty-four hours, my head sulked about the loss, whinging and whining about the utter stupidity of giving up something good. Turn back time, it said, tell them you’ve changed your mind. I have often reflected on why God created us with both heads and hearts. Surely one or the other would have been adequate? I’ll add that to my list of questions I must ask one day.

As far as I know, the reversal of time isn’t in our gift (Dr Who excepted), so we must use what we have to best effect. For me, giving something up was a way of doing that, but change is hard. So often, we cling to the security of what we know or to how we’ve always lived. Many of the conflicts I see as a workplace mediator have the unwanted impact of change at the centre. People tell me that things used to be better before everything changed. Work was fine until their annoying colleague joined the company. Life was peachy, but now their job description is changing and so on and so on. Curiously, though, we don’t just resist changes that are done to us. We also fight hard against making the changes we want for ourselves. Weird, aren’t we?

If this resonates, maybe it’s time to ask yourself what’s next for you and what stops you from making it happen. Maybe it concerns your writing, how you use your time, your work or something else. Whatever the issue, there's a time for everything.

“There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens. A time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing, a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak, a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.”

Ecclesiastes 3