margin

If we had a word of the month, this month's word would probably be MARGIN. What is margin? It is the EXTRA SPACE. When you read a book, there is a margin around each page. If there were no margin, the words would be written up to the very very end of the page, the last letter almost hanging off the end of the paper. All books need a margin; and so do we. We need extra space in our lives to move, to make choices with our time, our finances and our emotions. Too many times I feel like the words of my days are crowding against the edges of the pages in my life, and I find myself with no margin, no room to breathe.

So how can I create margin in my life, and how can I make time for relationships that I value the most? I am learning that in order to re-customize the typeset for my life's pages, I need to allocate some empty space for nothing. I can value peace by not overcommitting. Oftentimes, by going to bed earlier, we can find more margin in the beginning of our day. Dr Richard Swenson, in his book, Margin, speaks of the epidemic of stress and suggests that we can find margin in contentment, simplicity, balance and rest.

I used to pride myself in the fact that all of my words were written on all of my pages to the very end with no margin. Now, I am keenly aware that I want my life to be more than one crowded article. I want it to be a volume of well-written depth with MARGIN.