found time

not at all like the eery and painful silence of death valley is the life-giving quiet of time alone. being the younger sibling of twins, i have early memories of  space around me, separateness, set apart, a sometimes pleasant odd-man-out, if you will. fond afternoons of arriving home on the school bus with exactly 90 minutes for only me. both parents at work and my siblings in high school to return later, this was my time, i was boss. i explored, i breathed, i moved in slow motion. even then i must have been a putter-er, basking in the pleasure of choices, being in charge of my destiny, if only for an hour a day. now i obsess and dream about the joy of found time, the owning of every cranny of my house for brief intervals. long mental lists await me, and all too often the fervent hours dash by at their own speed 'til they are vanished, and the patter of feet at the door ends the spell. with my bustling household, there is only one answer to the query of what will you do with free time? my list is long, i say.