We just had a time change. We sprung forward, and for the next few weeks my body will have to adjust. Why we do time changes anymore I don't know. It seems irrelevant at this point and also, I find it to be crazy.
We allow ourselves to mentally make the jump that we either gain an hour of life or lose an hour of our life two times a year if you live in Tennessee. Two times out of the year we all accept that, a whole hour is either added to us or taken away.
In reality, literally nothing has changed. We don't get an hour physically nor did we see it vanish, all we see is that a number shifts forward or backwards.
Time is interesting because we treat it differently depending on where we are at in life and what we are doing.
For some, they feel like there is never enough time. For someone who is depressed it may feel like time is dragging by so slow, every minute feels like an exhausting day. For someone who is in love, they may feel like time doesn't even exist.
I remember when I started dating my wife, time felt like it wasn't a thing. We would stay up late, get up early, go on adventures. Time was no longer a factor, the only thing that mattered was being together and getting to know each other better. This is still often the case seven years into our marriage thankfully.
For people that play sports, we often see the beginning of the game get treated with ease and relaxation. When it gets within two minutes of the game ending, it's as if every player finally decides that they need to step it up, to start to really focus. Coaches will use language like... "We need to really focus now", as if they started the game saying.... "Hey, no worries, lets not focus that much right now, we will do that once there is only two minutes left".
It's all a mental game.
We all have been in a situation where hours feel like seconds.
You may even have new friends that you feel like you have known forever. They may be brand new into your life, yet you feel them begin to replace those who have been in your life for what feels like forever. How does this happen?
Time doesn't matter.
It's a manmade thing. It's numbers on a clock. Time is helpful to help us organize things, but if there is one thing on this earth that is totally unpredictable, it is time.
Some of us get longer time and some of us don't. There is nothing fair about time.
So what do we do with time? How do we approach it?
For me, time has become irrelevant because I have started to really embrace my path, my journey, and what I want to do. I no longer worry about time. I no longer worry about life or death. Do I think about it? Yes. Does it sometimes sneak up on me when a friends dad passes away in his sleep, yes. But time, it no longer dictates my life. It no longer is an important measure to me as it is manmade and unpredictable.
I no longer measure my life with time.
I have given up the burden of time. I have given up my expectations with time.
Instead, I focus on where I want to go and who I want to be around. I can not predict anything in this life. I can not predict when I will win a Grammy, or when I will have kids. We can make guesses, estimates, and there are certainly things we can do to push us towards those things. But I can't control the timing of it.
So often we rush through life, and worry, that another day has gone. Another minute has passed. That we are one step closer to death. For those that feel this way, they may be living a life that is not their own. This feeling comes from not living the life you really want to.
Time has become your god. Your slave driver.
Instead you should be in control of time. You should be times god and driver. You should get to the point where time no longer matters but what does matter is what is currently happening right in front of you.
The present moment, is all you will ever have and if you try to pin point it, another second will go by and that moment will now be a memory.
Time will always be a thing in our society but we don't have to give it power. It doesn't have to become a thing that causes stress and anxiety in our lives. I am a very task driven person. I went through most of my schooling obsessed with time. I would see how fast I could get things done, I would see how far ahead I could get. I wanted to see if I could graduate early. I did all these things because I felt like I wasting my time in school. I didn't exactly know what I wanted to do in college but I did know that what I was currently doing wasn't for me.
I had an urgency, I was trying to force time to go faster, so I could get on with my life. But I couldn't force it. I still had to take classes, I had to respect the process, and I had to be reminded that as much as I did to get ahead, I still had to show up to class. I did graduate early with a major and a minor but I still had to wait to walk across the stage with my class once everyone was done.
I was not present, and I was rushing time because I wasn't doing what I really wanted to in life.
Maybe this resonates with you?
If you feel like time is ticking away, like you're wasting your life, then examine why.
Are you doing the things you want to do? Are you investing into the present moment?
Or is everything just a number counting down?
Peace
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