Recently I was hosting a mutual friend called covid. It brought me to a horizontal, in my bed, under the blankets stillness. I would go into a deep time warped sleep and awaken with slowed thoughts, aware of my breathing, aware of the heaviness of my body against the bed, not moving. I was noticing how the light from the window changed from dusk to dawn, without me, or at least that is how it felt. Time marched on whether I was awake or not, of course it does. The subject of “time” became the subject of my drifting thoughts.
What about time? What is it? It carries plenty of importance in all our lives and the workings of the world. Yet, our awareness of time passing while meditation or sleeping or in a coma, time feels warped, and skewed once we come back to our physical surroundings.
I have learned that there are scientists all over the world and their only focus is time and making the corrections regarding time. This would provide a global order to time, and it is apparently necessary. I am sure that so many calculations are in place for any disruptions like the earth shifting on its axis by the “big one”! And it keeps us on our schedules of appointments, classes, meetings, fights, when to take medications etc. Sun dials were the first “clock” 1,500 years ago, the start of a mechanism that rules us by telling us the time of day. And I know that I am slave to time as all of us are in this hurried world and we do need order in the world, or our lives would be chaos, unorderly and confusing. How could it ever be anything else, we must have time and none of us lived before time was instituted, so we have no idea of anything else.
To “waste” time it often seen as frivolous, and how many of us had a clip to the back of the head for wasting time daydreaming as a youngster? Ernest Holmes “True imagination is not fanciful daydreaming; it is the fire of heaven”. Therefore, not time wasted after all, because I agree with Dr Holmes. And when we meditate, it is timeless, and an unawareness of time is a therapeutic side effect of meditation.
And how do we make our time count? What is worth our time? And how much value do we put on our time? And this is not to make our time any busier or crowd one more thing into our schedule either? Ghandi had an answer “I have so much to accomplish today that I must meditate for two hours instead of one.” Ghandi knew that this was “time’ well spent because meditation gave him a focused mind and more energy therefore, all his efforts in what he had to do was done efficiently.
I met a father once whose son aged 20 died in a car accident. He told me of his son’s perception of the time was that we had one second of time because in the next second our lives can change. He even had it as a tattoo: 00:00:01. He also recognized how valuable life was and that we had to make every second count, not just every minute.
Our time is a valuable commodity and there are many ways to demonstrate that. When I officiate funerals and the loved ones of the deceased share their stories, time making memories is beyond measure of the value. Being present in the moment, etches those memories in our minds and hearts so that they are fresh when we recall them to remember our loved ones. Mindfulness, being present, actively participating in this thing called Life, gives meaning to our time. And here is a secret; children do not really want ‘things’ or treats as much as quality time with their mom or dad (or grandma 😊).
While recovering, my time had to be spent resting and self care. I did not have the head space or mental capacity to ‘do’ anyways. I recognized the old beliefs that I had in the past, of being lazy, wasting time laying around. That old belief has no power anymore. I surrendered into knowing that my body was doing the work of creating antibodies, soothing any inflammation, allowing the virus to pass through and out. I am grateful for the magnificent workings of our human bodies and the integrity of the Universal Intelligence of every cell and system in my body that made extraordinary use of time to heal me, while I was ‘doing’ nothing!
“All we have to do is decide what we will do with the time that is given us.” JJK Tolkien
Nameste,
Peace and Blessings,
Rev Gwen