Tuesday 3 July 2007

time ... and how we spend it

although time is only a notion of man, it is part of our reality. we are born, we grow, we breed, we grow old and we die, the circle of life, inescapable, unchanging, inevitable. time is our way of marking the seasons of our lives. the creatures with whom we cohabit on mother earth have no need of time, they live their lives, concerned with their bodily needs for food, warmth and safety. as far as we are aware, they do not ponder, on birth and life and death and who created the creator.

while i do not consider mankind in any way a superior species ... we are aware and, if we are in any way wise,we will practice the art of wonder. we wonder at the stars, their distance from us, the fact that by the time we view that bright star on a dark night ... the actual star, in it's own time, might well be gone, burned out, no longer part of the living, pulsing universe. we ask questions and seek answers, we wonder...how and why and where.... when a cabbage grows in the ground... how does the soil feel? as the plants roots thrust their way down and through, does the soil feel violated, as the roots suck the minerals the plant requires from the soil, does the soil feel pain or a sense of loss?

our ability to wonder does not make us better, it does make us different.our awareness of birth and death and the space between, adds a sense of urgency to our lives ... and so we have time. we know we are not immortal and yet we find it exceedingly difficult to believe that we might cease to exist, that the world might carry on turning, when we are not in attendance to observe.a minute can be forever, an hour can be no time at all. our minds measure time according to the circumstances we find ourselves in.

as children, time is generous, slow and languid, stretching out almost endlessly, allowing us to search and find, to experiment and learn. time to run and play, to be held and comforted, time to soak up the meaning of life. childhood, for a beloved and well cared for child, is a place of magic, a wondrous, exciting voyage of discovery. very few children waste their time, every minute is a learning experience.as an adult in our child's world, we have a duty to supply a safe haven in which our child may absorb the world with the sense of wonder which only a child is capable of.

as we reach out of childhood and into adulthood, we become more self absorbed and less observant of the wonder around us. we become busy, we have tasks, goals, ambitions. we desire to be the best, to grow rich, to become famous. we have parties to attend,lovers to seduce, things to do and places to be. time shrinks, it slides past faster. the more we want, the less time we have. our greed for more of every thing robs us of time. until ...

we reach the age of maturity, when we begin to realize the true value of time. we lose people we love and we begin to understand. time is not an unlimited budget. we cannot buy more, there is no cheating the gods of time. we all have a limited allowance. gradually we realize the true importance of those we love, we come to appreciate the love of the heart and the spirit, our desire for material possessions and worldly success diminishes. we learn to reach out with nothing to offer but love.we have lived and we have learned the secret.invest in wonder, invest in gratitude and most of all invest in love.
the value of our time depends on how we spend it.

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