A Little Happier: We Really Don’t Have That Kind of Time. | Gretchen Rubin [Skip to content](#content) [  ](https://gretchenrubin.com)
- June 15, 2020
# A Little Happier: We Really Don’t Have That Kind of Time.
Happier with Gretchen Rubin
[Listen OnApple Podcasts](https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/little-happier-we-really-dont-have-that-kind-of-time/id969519520?i=1000477991733)[Listen OnSpotify](https://open.spotify.com/episode/0QrmDEArE7JpX1GTVxLGDu)[Listen OnPandora](https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/happier-with-grechen-rubin/e/71075515?autoplay=true)
Little Happier: We Really Don’t Have That Kind of Time.
Show Podcast Information
EPISODE NOTES
I’ve been doing research for a book I want to write about the body and the senses, and getting to the mind through the body. As part of that work, I’ve been thinking a lot about time, how we experience time, how time changes things. And now the terrible circumstances surrounding COVID-19 have made me think a lot about time, in a new way.
And as part of this reflection, I find myself going back to re-read and re-read one of my favorite passages from a book I love, Anne Lamott’s *[**Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life**](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0385480016/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0385480016&linkCode=as2&tag=thehappproj-20&linkId=MIGKI2Y4ALSXIW5D).*
She writes:
> But about a month before my friend Pammy died, she said something that may have permanently changed me.
>
> We had gone shopping for a dress for me to wear that night to a nightclub with the man I was seeing at the time. Pammy was in a wheelchair, wearing her Queen Mum wig, the *Easy Rider* look in her eyes. I tried on a lavender minidress, which is not my usual style. I tend to wear big, baggy clothes. People used to tell me I dressed like John Goodman. Anyway, the dress fit perfectly, and I came out to model it for her. I stood there feeling very shy and self-conscious and pleased. Then I said, ‘Do you think it makes my hips look too big?’ and she said to me slowly, ‘Annie? I really don’t think you have that kind of time.’
No, I don’t think we don’t have that kind of time either.
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