What Time is It?

Among my obsessions, I think about the notion of time frequently. I write about it from time to time (no pun intended). Right now, I am thinking about how quickly summer flashes by. Where did the time go? It was only yesterday….

In the Chicago music tune, the question was raised: “Does anyone really know what time it is? Does anyone really care?” I remember having a conversation with a friend one day in her college dorm room back in 1970. I am sure it was a deep philosophical discussion. A year later, she died of breast cancer. Neither of us had any idea about time– one more year for her and 55 more years for me.

Psychologists have written about why time goes more quickly when we get older. Children have new experiences and process massive amounts of information that require time. As we get older, we have progressively fewer new experiences. Equally importantly, our perception of the world often becomes more automatic. We absorb less information that takes less time. I understand that notion.

We cannot stop time. Nevertheless, I want everything to slow down. I want to resist the process of speeding up. The most obvious is to keep introducing newness into my life such as traveling, meeting new people, and especially for me, thinking about ideas that I want to apply to my own self help, and write about.

Another idea that is hard for me related to time is to simply slow down by living mindfully. Because I like having many activities going on in my life, I remind myself to recognize day-to-day experiences such as seeing, hearing, and feeling the world around me. Observing animals is one thing that I do that provides mindfulness.

On a more long-term basis, I am trying to cultivate conscious awareness through meditative practices (including meditation walks) that quiet the chatter in my mind. Further, I continue to focus on gratitude in daily living.

Part of me longs for more time to do more with my life. On the other hand, I am grateful for the opportunities and relationships that have sustained me for decades. Jim Croce wrote about “time in a bottle.”  I value the idea of a world where precious moments are saved in a bottle and revisited at any time, simply by pulling a cork. Remembering the moments does not make time slow down, but it gives me a perspective on the time I have had on this earth.