DO YOU HAVE TIME TO THINK?

Over New Year I spent time in South Africa with a very good friend. I’ve known her for far longer than I like to remember – long enough to have shared a flat with her when we were at university in Cape Town many many moons ago. She now lives in a beautiful house near the Kruger National Park, where you can sit on the deck and watch warthog wander by and see the red African sun setting over the distant Drakensberg mountains (see pic). It was lovely to see my friend and her family, to spend time catching up, to enjoy the bliss of sunshine in December – but most of all it was wonderful to be away from my own busy life and have time to think.

I once bought a book by the Nobel-prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman called ‘Don’t You Have Time To Think?’, purely for the title. I did read and forgot more about quantum electrodynamics than I’ll ever need to know, but what struck me most was his interest in contemplation. It obviously worried me then, and it worries me still - how little time we have to think. There is so much doing going on, so much rushing around with work and children and socialising, how many of us dare to give ourselves time to just – think? Even time spent writing is not spent thinking. And sometimes you need to think before you can write, and in between bits of writing.

It strikes me that if you’re not thinking you losing something, some part of yourself, some way of grounding and being sure of your place – where you are now, where you want to be. If you do have time to think, really think, then it makes you a better writer. So when things are frantic and you’re trying madly to prioritise, remember to put on that list: Time to Think. (And if you get the chance, go on holiday to Africa.)