Time

Time is a beautiful thing. It is a portal, it is illusionary, it is persistent. It is nature’s own instruction book. You cannot pin it down, and yet it gives life dimension, boundaries, a “perception” of past, present and future. It is a chamelon. It is barely noticeable second to second, is constantly on the move.

Time and movement are difficult to separate. We race against the clock, we try to beat it back. It is how we perceive the world, with nature being the teacher, with each sunrise and sunset, each leaf falling and flower blooming, the first burst of a star, the eons of erosion in the mountains, the cry of the baby, the last breath of life. It is its own wisdom, giving us the gift of memory, of perception, of change. Nature keeps it own clock.

Sit still enough in the present moment, and time seems to stand still. Start anticipating anxiously, it seems to crawl by. The ticks of the clock become loud. If anticipation becomes a crisis, it may crawl even slower. When immersed in an unselfconscious moment of good work or play it becomes invisible. A day may be as a life time, a life time as a day. Nothing in nature can avoid the force of time, anymore than gravity. This holds true for the people who seem to hold so much power, but that power that seems to hold so tightly with an attitude of hubris, will slip away from them too.

In time there is creation, then growth, then death. The mightiest mountain and most beautiful cathedral will bear the mark of time. As does the fresh faced newborn girl may become the wrinkled visage of an old woman. Time, movement and change are as one.

The regularity of nature, in the rise and setting of the sun, the passing of the seasons and its affect on flora and fauna influenced our early efforts to anticipate and organize by planting seeds and eventually domesticating animals, the first forway to human ambition to take control of life (so time) requiring collaboration and resourcefulness. Finding a way to build permamence as a buttress against the constant change of nature, a way to find some security and safety, resulted finding faster ways to get from here to there. We built awesome edifices as a monument to our selves, to our ideals, to our faith, hoping they will withstand the passage of time. We built cities as an answer to nature, a type of human ecosystem that still does not quite match the aethetics, collaboration, and efficiecy of nature.

We went from being awed by nature, to being separated from nature. Time becomes something to be managed, which we do through rituals, schedules, rules, plans and technology.

For some, who see a face etched by time, they don’t see wisdom or experience, but an erosion of youth, which is equated with strength, health, beauty and energy. The old is the past, youth is the future. We impose on the young the hope and fears and burden of a future, but often ignore the lessons of elders. But these lessons can turn hope into action, and ease the fears and the burden of responsiblity.

Knowing history can provide valuable perspective. However, our individual experience is each present day, and focusing on that, with some mind to past and future is the way of peace and equinamity. The feeling of connection to others, to nature, and to a spiritual force can also provide grounding through uncertain change.

We value what we perceive to be rare, to be limited. Each individual has a limited life. All of nature has limited life, to allow for new life. The fact that life is limited  is why we give it value. Since we often value certainty we may fear the future. But while time moves on, or we move through time, in our experience of reality, of being here, is that it is always now and present. We cannot reside in past or future. We can learn from the past, and look forward to the future. We may even have some influence in what happens next, but more importantly its how we respond to change. From our perspective death is a completion, at least of a chapter or book. What comes next is a new chapter or new book.

Time is a trickster, a magician, a hard master. It can be light as feather, generous and forgiving. It can also be firm and stern. Don’t try to harness it, but keep it well. It is a passing thing.

We think of terms in loss and gain, but the losses you have experienced with passage of time are still part of you. Losses are not lost but part of the tapestry of your life. Every gain is a future loss. The tapestry will be complete when your story is complete, with your final breath. But your story still echoes through the lives of others. Time is bringing us headlong into the next moment, and to the final moment. There is scripture about the alpha and omega, to be there before the beginning of time, and ever after. The idea of eternity is too boundless to understand. Be here, be now, be present and be at peace.