Swirls of Time

The other day I noticed it was September 15^th. A few days later it was October 15^th and today it is October 25^th. Time is scooting. I remember times when it didn’t, like as a kid Christmas Eve just did not advance. Or when the school year was over and the family vacation began.

In youth time is eternal. It simply does not move. No action.

In high school and college time sped up as when an exam or term paper was due and I was nowhere near prepared or finished. The good things came slowly; the bad things fast.

In the twilight years time’s tempo is quick. Today is Monday but yesterday was Monday as well. How did that happen?

You and I are not the only two people who have noticed this conundrum. It is ageless. Each of us humans learn time is precious in its own time. whether we notice it or not, value it or not, it matters little. Time has its own merit. We make it matter to us in how we handle it, manage it, make the most of it.

I am reminded of the tale of the squirrel who labors in summer to prepare for fall and winter. The other squirrels are busy having fun and laugh at the squirrel working to gather nuts. Yet it is that squirrel that is prepared and snug for the cold winter months when food is scarce. The others note the value of his frugality too late; they hunger and struggle for survival.

Early in my career I worked for a firm with the tag line, “The future belongs to those who prepare for it.” Much later I developed a career in strategic planning. The use of time as a critical resource was the aim of my work. My mind was focused on the future and preparing for it.

So much was the future my center I forgot the present. Much went unnoticed and undervalued. It took retirement to shift focus to the now.

Years later my value of time is dazzled by its quixotic dance. Fast today, slow tomorrow. Perspective builds from the dichotomies. The biblical passage – ‘through a dark glass dimly’ – takes stark meaning. A dark glass is the hint of future and its meaning; time helps view it more clearly. The meaning becomes better defined. I can readily use the meaning now whereas I puzzled its meaning years ago.

Age does that. It teaches, weighs, assesses. Time is not a passage between then and now, it is a resource, an asset to be spent doing the things that mean we are living life fully. It is temporary. It is finite.

Best we work it well.

October 25, 2021