A Short Dive Into Time

Time.

We all have our own concepts on what it really means. After all, the word time itself can describe a multitude of things –

“What time is it?”

“Give me a moment of your time.“

“The times have been hard.”

“It’s pretty hot for this time of year.”

“The timing is off.”

When you think of time, is it, in fact, purely clock time? Is that what time is? Is the correct answer to what in the world constitutes the true time… a number on a clock?

No. It can’t be. Logically speaking, clock time is rigid, continual, and constantly ticking forward. It precisely divides our day up into segments, making us become so concerned with what a number on a screen or a watch or a computer is telling us what it’s “time” to do.

But, what if time were really more?

Time is not something I view like a large majority of the world. And I’m not going to be all cliche and tell you that “time is an illusion,” because, you see, clock time is really the illusion. Time. Real time – well that’s something else altogether.

In my theories, time is not a straight line. It’s not a simple, one lane road moving forward in one direction, at the same speed. Many people, when they picture time, they think of this one road track that zooms towards a person, pulling them forward through the hours in a day, the days in a week, weeks in a month, and eventually months into years.

Time, well time doesn’t truly have one direction. Time isn’t so cut and dry, so consistently the same, chopped into blocks and increments.

When I think of time, what I really think of is change. Growth. That is the true beast of time, the true form in which it hides.

Life moves all around us in a constantly flowing pool of energy. Every rock, every building, every person is composed of energy. And as life flows, so does it change, does it alter. Were it not for the cycle of the sun, and growing trees, our aging skin, and morphing insects, we would not know this great phenomena called change. We see change in all aspects of living, breathing life. We even see it in the bricks and mortar; the rusting metal, chipping paint, and fading colors.

We see the daily change – the cycles of light then dark, the moon shape waxing then waning, the tides receding then pushing forward. We see the change happening in us, in our faces, our joints, and skin. We see our bodies change, react differently, become slower, as the changes pass by.

We define this change the only way people know how – by categorizing it, labeling it, and sticking a shiny sticker on it so we can track it. We call it time.

But, as life so changes around us, we find ourselves presented with options. Each decision we make impacts each decision after, and on and so forth, giving a seemingly limitless amount of outcomes laid before our very paths.

See, this is where I believe that time is all around us. Like a sphere, it envelopes us. Time goes in many directions and it can modify based on the slightest factors. As you move through life, time (or respectively CHANGE) approaches you, from all directions. As these options present themselves, you make the turns and twists, dancing through time as you make your choices and thus – change. These paths are constantly intermingling with one another, and with the other people and creatures around you, in your world. You affect their lives the same way they affect yours.

Time is something that can be felt, at our very cores, if we listen hard enough. Nature seems to have it down pat, after all.

Why do birds fly south?

Why does the salmon fish swim upriver?

How does a newborn sea turtle know to find its way back home to the ocean?

Instincts, you see. And what is instinct but not the listening of ones very soul? What is instinct if not the inner most core of your being telling you exactly what needs to be done? What is instinct if not the very nature of your time, instructing you on the next step, the next change, the next leg of your journey?

There is a reason people tell you to trust your instincts. If you can find the tune of your own life, if you can learn to listen to the beating answers that resonate from your core, and you start to follow them, the path you find leads you exactly where you need to be. You can navigate through this amazing spectacle of life, feeling like you are in the right place, at the right time. You’ll find your happiness, your purpose, and you’ll continue to change and grow as you do.

When you come to these realizations as I have, you’ll find that time is nothing to get worked up or concerned or frustrated about.

There is NEVER NOT enough time.

There is the PERFECT amount of time.

There is NEVER a reason why the pressures of “clock” time should bring down your spirit and your energy.

For YOU and TIME are one. It glosses over, in, and all around you.

Yes, we all have obligations to clock time. Modern society runs on it. But, you don’t have an obligation to let it rule your every thought, waking moment, and dreams. See, you can feel what choices you should make. You can feel when you’re hungry – so you eat. You can listen to when your soul is ready to create – and so you work. You can feel what needs to be done next in your life, and your space of time, and so you accomplish it.

Time is nothing but change.

Society has hi-jacked time. It has built walls and suffocated the true nature of time, giving it measurements and structure where instinct and need once reigned. It has labeled and dominated our lives, in places where people once listened to naught but the natural world and feelings of their own hearts.

You’re told to eat at “lunch time” instead of when you’re hungry in most workplaces.

You’re given “hours of operation” in which you’re allowed to buy certain goods or receive certain services.

You have a “schedule” to follow.

You have a “time” to wake up, instead of when you’re naturally rested.

And yes, structure like “clock” time is arguably necessary for this modern society. We use clock time to measure all sorts of things – from engineering and processing goods that require specific and accurate counting measures, to cooking meals so that everything is ready altogether (and properly edible) to simply keeping track of the length of a gathering between you and your friends.

But this is not the time, nor the place for favoring clock time. It has gone too far, infected too much of our every day lives. We are so sucked in by following and organizing our lives based on clock time that we forget to listen to what our souls need in order to be nurtured.

Do you realize that clock time has become so precise, and so rigid, down to the smallest unit of measurement, that our earth’s rotation is not good enough? We have to add on an extra day ever four years to line up the natural earth with our definition of the “time.”

Do you realize that two babies can be born at exactly the same moment in this world on opposite sides of the globe, and yet according to our definition of “time,” one of them is considered older?

So, let me ask you again: Is time, in fact, purely a number on a clock? Is it the face of your watch or the stamp on the your most recent receipt?

Or – is time something more?