vous avez l'heure ?

Over the weekend, I met a woman who refuses to wear a watch. She also refuses to refer to her cell phone to check the time. When I asked her about her personal stand against temporal cognizance, she told me, quite simply, that she teaches physics to middle schoolers, and because of this, her days are regulated to the minute, without fail, from the minute she arrives in class until the minute the last bell of the day sounds.

Her eyes were laughing as she described the pleasure of weekends where she can roam from one place, thought, experience to the next, without the interruption of a loud ringing to tell her to stop! and move on to the next (although likely the same) subject.

The notion of strict time constraints and work really struck a chord with me, and I told her so. It's been almost 4 years that I've been working from home, and the idea of going back to a regimented office environment, at the same time and place everyday, scares me. Yes, I miss the social interaction with colleagues... but I truly, truly love working in my office at home, where I can start the day at 7h30 or 9h30, finish up after dinner or while Jacques naps, go for a walk in the garden to clear my head or take a power nap to rest my eyes. I feel incredibly lucky that my line of work allows for this freedom, and am grateful for the self-directed motivation that I've developed because of it.

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