Happy 2019, everyone!

Mine is off to a strange but motivating start, having woken up to a low bossy voice (think: ghost in A Christmas Carol) saying, “Don’t run out the clock on the rest of your life.” It is rather bold, straight forward guidance, isn’t it? Yet still feels like a koan.

So I looked up the phrase “running out the clock” in Wikipedia:

In sports, running out the clock (also known as running down the clock, stonewalling, killing the clock, chewing the clock, stalling, or eating clock^[1]) is the practice of a winning team allowing the clock to expire through a series of pre-selected plays, either to preserve a lead or hasten the end of a one-sided contest. Generally, it is the opposite strategy of running up the score.

Wikipedia

Eating clock?!

Anyway, the whole page is spookily relevant when read as a metaphor, but this part in particular jumped out: “A team in possession of the lead and the ball will attempt to use up as much of the game clock as possible in order to bring the game to an end more quickly, thus denying the opposition another chance on offense.”

I suppose it is true that I’ve been in a protective stance for a while, so it is encouraging to think I’m getting signals to play more openly, vigorously. What an on point answer to questions I’ve been throwing out to the universe lately!