On time

Being on time is not that thing I'm famous for.  It's not that I don't respect time or other people's time...I just don't find it a very easy beast to understand.  I mean, what is time, really? It's a very arbitrary, abeit necessary construct, and yet I find myself debating with time and it's invisible elusive nature on a daily basis.

  However, others may argue that spending time debating time is surely an unnecessary waste of time when you could be doing something constructive with your time.  Hmmm.  People of this persuasion may have a point.  BUT maybe I need to begin by commenting on the phrase "doing something constructive with your time."  If you can't see something happening, does this automatically mean a) nothing is happening or b) that someone is not being constructive?  Sometimes being still and silent is by far the most constructive choice of time-usage you could make. Yet how often is this given as an option, in say, the workplace? Um, Susan you seem to be needing some time-out, why don't you take as long as you need to refresh in the comfy-corner, in silence. Ha!! What madness!! And what a waste of productive time! Time is money and there aint no money being made laxing back in the comfy-corner. But hangon a minute, is it really madness?...we DO use this way of valuing time with our kids, but why is it that we stop honouring a need for slow-down-time when we grow up?  

If 'constructive' needs to be tangible it also undermines the fact that we all have an inner world of thoughts and imagination - whether we consciously acknowledge it or not - and the emphasis on a societal norm of time construction, viewed in a very concrete way does not allow for the invisible which gets sidelined by the power of producing something.  Especially in adults.  The expectation is that we no longer have a need for time to take care of this inner, imaginative, thoughtful part of ourselves. The part where we find meaning and develop our values and principles of what life is really all about.  Ha! Again, what madness.  Can you buy and sell it? No? Then there is no time for it.

Well, for me, whether it's the standard flavour of the day or not, if I am honest with myself, I know I need this time. Hell, I demand this time.  Society may not encourage it but I believe it' absolutely necessary.  Because of this, time just doesn't go at my speed. I move slow, and when forced to rush I feel pressure that just doesn't make sense.  What's the hurry we are all in? What is so in need of doing that I must ignore all the fabulous people, conversations, moments, views, sparkly things that catch my eye in order to be constructive...whatever that really might be. Slow as I may appear to be, I am constructing a whole fabulous dimension to me which counter to what we may be led to believe, has an important impact on the outer world we live in.

Time, can be viewed as either a gift we all have the choice to be generous with and share with others or it's a buy and sell commodity, scrooged away, measured by money and controlled by the clock...

Time and space are some of the ways - important ways - of measuring where we are and when things are happening...but our obsession with controlling it may leave us empty and alone.

Make time wait sometimes. Put time on hold sometimes.  Forget about time sometimes.  Enjoy time...with the knowledge that nothing you do is a waste of time.