“Like as the waves make towards the pebbl’d shore, so do our minutes, hasten to their end.” – William Shakespeare
Have you ever looked at your watch and wondered where the day went? This happens to me all the time. Time! What is time? Usually we are always in a rush. I have written to a friend of mine today and she told me how busy she is doing this and that and having no time really do all her work she needs or wants to do. Then sometimes at work she looks at the clock and realizes that it is late afternoon or early evening and she is still in the office. Often I hear people say that they will do “this and that” to save time. Well, you cannot “save” time I think. You cannot just hit “pause”, do our tasks while everybody else stops as well until you are are ready to continue and join the world again.
I thought many times how awesome it would be to just stop time for a while. Imagine how much I could get done! Well, in any case as mentioned we cannot save time but we can use time or properly utilize it. I do not think about time as long as I am okay usually. Until something gives me a sharp reminder or kicks me in the back to remind me of my fragile human life. Today I have been at the doctors office. He could have told me anything .. he found something… I am not healthy, I need this and that treatment. Well it turned out I am okay. This is awesome! I can still play along. 😀
It is increasingly difficult to shut off in a world like this. We are connected 24/7, we have emails, smart phones, Whatsapp, Facebook you name it. So how do we find balance, how do we find actual human interaction as well as time for ourselves? What I have learned so far is that it is important to simply be in the present moment. Meditation has helped me a lot to figure all this out. Meditation stills the mind and brings presence.
I have read a great book recently. It is by Eckhart Tolle called “The Power Of Now”. He describes that we have this constant mental chatter within us, however, we can learn to switch it off by simply allowing us to be present or just to focus on the moment. The past and future have just not bearing on the now. Who cares what happened in the past. It is gone. We cannot turn back time. We just have to move on. Even if it is difficult sometimes.
One way I can experience presence is when I am just doing ONE thing. Like watching a sunset or playing with my son for example. Or mediation. I am focusing on the task and activity. Nothing else. So why can’t I always be in this present stage? Every minute, every hour of everyday? Well, there are always things going on. There is no routine. Things change. We have to adapt. I am rather reading instead of watching TV. I am reading a lot to my son. I find my presence there while reading. And guess what? My son KNOWS and FEELS when I am present or not. When I have a ton on my mind or I am doing ten things at the same time he is all confused and is annoying and stressed out himself. Like me. Same thing. Kids feel the restlessness and stress. Always!
I am not really planning anything major (this is husband’s territory), however, I am planning my next weekend for example or my next day even asking myself what I would do today if it was the last day of my life. Whatever the answer is, this is what I should be doing. And I try to apply this to everything in my life. Vacations, my time with my precious family and everything else in my life. I do not think it is important to focus on the fact that I will die at some point (hopefully in the distant future), but rather to appreciate and accept my time on this planet as finite. I have to ensure that I focus on what is important rather than on what is most often unimportant or “urgent”. Maybe at some point science will find a way to manipulate time and make it slow down or explain relativistic time better – I just do not want to waste time waiting for this to happen.
