Take Five

Five minutes isn’t a long time. It’s not long enough to have your nails done so you feel polished and put together. It isn’t enough time to hunker down and read a chapter of the book that whisks you away. You can’t take a yoga class or shop for a new pair of shoes. Five minutes isn’t even long enough to have a good chin wag with a friend without feeling rushed. It’s too short a time.

What I like to think of is what can I do with five more minutes. Not five times sixty seconds, but the allowance of five more minutes to slow down just enough to make something worthwhile or accomplish something correctly. Run into an old friend on the street? Give them five more minutes of your time and really feel like you connected. Putting on makeup? Five minutes is the difference between slapping on mascara and a true smoky eye. Allowing yourself five more minutes to set the table can take your environment from functional to inviting, and five extra minutes to walk from a metered spot to the restaurant can save $20 on valet.

Our world is so rushed, so intent on the completion of tasks, that sometimes it’s just that extra effort, that tiny bit more attention to a project, or a person, that can make all the difference. Five minutes on it’s own might not be much, but added to the time you were already giving, it can be all you need.

Photo by Janis Nicolay

Author Description

Leigh McGowan

Born in Toronto, Canada, Leigh was a working actress in NYC until she married an actor and settled in LA. Deciding there were one too many actors in the family she now works as a portrait photographer and writer. She is the mother of a four year old son and has been living with pulmonary hypertension, a rare and currently incurable lung disease, since 2008. Her blog In Case I'm Gone has garnered enough attention since it's 2011 launch to soon become a published memoir.

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