What’s in an Hour? by Debra H. Goldstein
The other day, I did something unusual for me. It was one of the few days that I didn’t need to be somewhere in the morning, so I didn’t set an alarm. I still woke up just before eight a.m. but decided to turn over for a few minutes. The next time I looked at the clock, it read a few minutes after ten.
For a moment, I felt guilty. There were so many things I could have done had I gotten out of bed when I woke up or even by nine. Then, I decided maybe what I had needed most was the hour of peaceful rest. I had to admit, I felt good. In fact, when I swung my legs off the bed, I didn’t groan to myself.
On November 1, at two a.m., we will set our clocks back an hour as part of Daylight Savings Time. Doing this returns us to standard time. It also means that unlike the change we made in March, when we set our clocks ahead an hour, we gain back an hour of sleep. That will make me a happy camper because I can sleep without guilt that I’m missing out on doing something.
I hate to tell the powers-that-be that in March, for me, I always have thoughts about the fact that I will never regain that hour. Imagination runs rampant about what I could have done during that time. The possibilities are endless. Compose a poem. Write a short story. Bake a cake. Do my laundry. You can imagine the myriad of other things that crosses my mind. Yet, I never do anything to reclaim the hour.
What would you do with an extra hour gained or lost?
