Day 363: Buddy, have ya got the time?

Time, it's a self-inflicted wound.

It is an arbitrary measure that provides some structure and order to our lives.  Starts and finishes can all be measured by time.  It's a great measuring stick for performance and it helps us to understand our place in human history.  But in many respects time has become the bane of our very existence.  It limits and restricts us.  Now I'm not saying we need to do away with all elements of time.  Hey, if it wasn't for time planes would never leave or arrive.... oh wait, bad example.  Time does matter but it is something we've created and over the millenniums we've allowed it to control us rather than serve us. 

It is kinda cool to watch the Times Square New Years Eve celebration in New York but it is still just some random moment lost in the cosmos.  Even though it's fun to count down as the ball drops or counting down the last few seconds of a game our team is winning, time does create a significant amount anxiety and stress.  Ever run to catch a plane, the Metro or race through town in your car just to make an appointment?  How about trying to meet work deadlines or complete tasks sooner?  We're all slaves to this task master called time.  We talk about lost time, made time, no time, or plenty of time.  Kind of ironic that time is the one thing that keeps us out of the present time.  Regardless of what we're doing now, time will always warn us of what lies ahead which keeps us from completely enjoying the present moment.  "Wow, I'm having so much fun but I need to be somewhere in about an hour."

Somehow we think we can control time by buying into this misnomer of "making time".  There's nothing to make.  Time isn't something that comes in a pouch where you add water and microwave it for two minutes and, BOOM, you've got yourself an extra hour.  Making time really means making priorities.  When we say we don't have time for relationships, goals or ambitions, the inconvenient truth is that we don't want to make those things priorities in our lives.  Diets, marriages, relationships, education, jobs, we fail in all of these things because we don't make priorities out of them.  On the contrary we typically blame it on not having enough time, that we're too busy just trying to satisfy the basics of Maslow's hierarchy of needs.  Hey, whatever.  Excuses are a dime a dozen, even in this economy.

If it really is something important to you than pay attention to it.  Tend to it and nurture it as if it's very existence depends on you, which in fact it actually does.  Take your watch off, turn your clocks around and just be in the moment.  There's no better time than the present.  Some of our best moments occur when we lose track of time.  Playing with our children or grandchildren, a dinner out with friends, snuggling on the couch with our spouses.  There's so much wonder and joy in the present moment.  If there is anything that's important to you then make it important to you right NOW.