Fall back, spring forward

This is the time change that makes sense to me. Even then, fall back, spring forward feels strange and I wonder how many people will be early tomorrow, late in the spring.
Moving the clock makes me wonder how much of our lives is really goverened by time and how many days it would take to become aware of the change if I didn't have a schedule, something to bind me to what the clock dictates.
It's difficult to imagine a life without binding activities. Going through the motions takes up so much of our time. I'm not always certain how much of it really matters. Will I worry when I'm 80 that my windows weren't washed and my child's cookies weren't homemade? I don't know exactly how we determine what's important; all of it seems to add up to something, but maybe not always the right thing.
 I sometimes think about my impending maternity leave as that time, a pause, a furlow into babyland where there are no meetings or term papers. That time, however, isn't reality, not in the long term sense anyway, and will pass all too quickly. I'll still have a laptop and a Blackberry and calls. The baby too will have a schedule. For six or eight weeks, I'll be doing something out of the ordinary and that I may not do again.
I remember when my son was a baby and I lost track of what day it was, what time, dawn or dusk. It really felt that that all of the days blended into one long stretch of time. The first three months seemed to last forever and I was sure we wouldn't ever get him to eight months, much less a first birthday. He's four now. Time may fall back, but just as surely, it springs forward.