Is time out such a bad thing?  Can someone send me to my room please?  I’d love to spend some quiet time in there, in the middle of the day, all by myself, w/nothing but a book or magazine to read. 

    Think about it for a second. Doesn’t that seem a little turned around?  Young trouble maker gets invited to go off into quiet land, for some uninterrupted thought, reading, and a little rest.  And that’s called punishment?  I call it paradise!  How nice it would be to create a little ruckus, only to then be told, ‘well now youngster,  off to your room for a while!’  Someone sign me up please!

    Is it possible to put ourselves in time out?  Can we carve out little niches in our day, where we allow ourselves time to think, dream, or even do nothing?  We don’t have to earn it, or deserve it, can it simply occur as a matter of course?  Why not?  Like anything else, we can make it part of our routine.  It doesn’t need to involve long periods of time, just little snippets here and there, for your very own ‘grown up time outs.’

    Do you ever notice, after said time out,  how young one can seem kind of emotionally transformed, recharged,  and even a little more centered?  How is this a bad thing?  It can’t be, if the result is clarity and peace.  Think of your own grown up time outs as a kind of small mental vacation, minus the packing!  You don’t need to be versed in meditation, or experienced in any kind of spiritual chanting here.  I’m talking about treating yourself to a few pages of the book you’ve been putting off, or maybe browsing that design magazine for inspiration.  Even listening to music can be a kind of departure.

    These are small pleasures, little treasures, that can help the imagination take flight,  make the heart sing and spirit leap.  Treating yourself in little ways, as a matter of course,  can be a form of pacing yourself in the distance race of life.  It doesn’t always have to be work, or service, or production in our daily living.  Imagine logging your own kind of frequent flyer miles, toward your mini vacation daily time outs. Turn in your miles.  Not for being ‘bad,’ but for being, and staying ‘good.’  Very, very good.