How we spend our days
is, of course,
how we spend our lives.
What we do with this hour,
and that one,
is what we are doing.
A schedule
defends from chaos
and whim.
It is a net
for catching days.
It is a scaffolding
on which a worker
can stand
and labour with both hands
at sections of time.
A schedule is a mock-up
of reason and order —
willed, faked,
and so brought into being;
it is a peace and a haven
set into the wreck of time;
it is a lifeboat
on which you find yourself,
decades later,
still living.
Each day is the same,
so you remember
the series afterward
as a blurred and powerful pattern.
- Annie Dillard
