This past weekend, most North Americans fell back an hour to return to Standard Time. Europe and most of the rest of the northern hemisphere did this a week earlier. The time-honoured (pun intended!) ritual of changing the clocks and dealing with confused bodies was accompanied by another phenomenon that always follows a time change, as the night follows day – the semi-annual argument about having DST at all.

The battle lines are drawn between those who are early risers, like me, and would like to have more light in the morning, and those who are night owls, and would prefer to have more light in the evening. This is especially important for those of us who live in higher latitudes, where there are significant seasonal differences in length of daylight. Studies have shown that DST does not save energy at all, but there are definitely economic considerations – not the least being how much the North American candy industry benefits from an extra hour of daylight in the evening of October 31.

Regardless of where you stand in this debate (Perpetual DST! Never DST!), it never hurts to give some consideration to what is important to you. We can get caught up in the business of everyday life, and just do things the way we’ve always done them, whether they still serve us or not. 

What matters to you most? Are you choosing to make the time for it? Are you just going along with old habits? Would your life be better if you made different choices? What kind of changes could you make?

Thinking about the DST metaphor, where would you choose to focus your light? I’d love to know.