"Much may be done in those little shreds and patches of time which every day produces, and which most men throw away. " ~Charles Caleb Colton
 Franklin Covey, in his Seven Habits of Effective People, talks about a Circle of Concern and a Circle of Influence. The Circle of Concern is like the larger part of a bullseye, the outside rings of our lives where things linger that we are worried about. The Circle of Influence is like the inside of the bullseye, the bullseye as it were, where things that we can effect reside. He explains an interesting phenomenon that I believe to be true. The time you concentrate on one circle effects the other. If I concentrate on my Circle of Influence, on the things I can make a difference about, then my Circle of Concern gets smaller. The things I'm worried about get smaller. If I concentrate on my Circle of Concern, the things I'm worried about, then my Circle of Influence - the things I can impact, gets smaller. It makes sense.
 The greatest example would be time. Everyone worries about their time, especially about the future or the past. We have little control over the future and even less over the past yet they are definitely in our circle of concern. The time I have right now, my present, is in my circle of influence. That is the only time that I can impact. If I concentrate on the future or past too much, my influence over today will decrease. If I concentrate on today, my concern for the future or the past will minimize.
 That is the power of right now. We don't have to imagine what a consorted effort of people using their time wisely can do. Look at Habitat for Humanity. Hundreds of volunteers dedicate their present time to building a house and it is done. One minute at a time, many hands in on the work. Go to a soup kitchen the hours leading up to feeding time through the time it takes to clean up and see what the power of minutes can do under the hands of those saints who cook, serve and clean.
 Last week a gentleman stopped me in a restaurant as I was returning to my table from the restroom. He was eating alone at the bar and he had a question for me. He was traveling on business and his son was about to deploy for a second time to Iraq. I have no idea how he knew that I was a military wife. I have no idea why he felt that it was me he had to talk to. I stopped and listened. He was concerned about his son, he was unsure of the situation "over there" and was beginning to question if he could support his child through another deployment, emotionally and mentally. I was able to give him some guidance on resources to plug into that would direct his energy. I couldn't promise him that everything would be okay, but I let him know that his feelings were very normal. When our conversation ended, I could see on his face that he was relieved. He thanked me for taking the time out to talk to him. As I walked to my table I looked at my watch and noticed that the conversation took less than seven minutes. Seven minutes to calm the fears of a parent. Seven minutes to point someone to the myriad of resources that are out there for the families of our service members. Seven minutes to take what I've learned in the face of deployments and a life as a military wife and to use it to help someone.
I had only that time at that moment and for me it was time well spent.