What is Time?

Years ago, I heard, or read, a quote that was along the lines of “Time is just something we have that stops everything from happening at once”. I never knew where the quote came from, and even Googling it today doesn’t really clear that up.

The quote stuck with me, along with a lot of other seemingly useless trivial stuff. Anyone who knows me at all, knows that I keep a lot of that type of trivial shit in my head. My question is often “why?”. What is it about certain things that mean they stay with me, and others don’t?

Maggie doesn't care about time!

With this particular quote, it really struck a chord with me, because time seemed so variable. Why is it that a minute spent vegetating on the lounge is so much shorter than a minute spent holding the plank position? Why is it that an hour spent walking along a bush track is so much shorter on the way back than it is on the way there? Why is it that a year when you are 5 years old is so much longer than a year when you are 50 years old?

I think I can answer the last question – my explanation is that a year, as a percentage of your life so far, is HUGE when you are 5, but so very little when you are 50. I don’t really know HOW that explains it, but it feels right.

Having said all that, I know that I’ve spent a lot of emotion over the years beating myself up because I couldn’t do all the things I wanted to/needed to/should do. How many times have I said “I will do all these things once I have more time”?

Making these mug rugs WAS part of the plan this week

Well, let me tell you, retiring DOES NOT mean I have more time! What a surprise! I thought, simply by not having to get up and go to work would mean I would have more time. Ha! The amount of time is just the same – time is NOT variable.

But it still feels like it. This last week has seemingly disappeared. I had plans. I wanted to get things done. And I wanted to enjoy some quiet, relaxing time. But here I am, at the end of the week, and I feel as though all those days just went by without me noticing or paying attention.

As I said in my last post, I try to keep track of what day it is by keeping a diary (of sorts). And this helps me to know that I HAVE actually done things during the week. Now I need to be a bit more flexible, and simply go with the flow if the plans I have get changed, or the things I want to do don’t actually get done. After all, it isn’t as if the time has been wasted.

I see time passing with my growing Grass Tree

I don’t think time can be wasted. Time simply is. It passes. Don’t stress about it, I tell myself. I will try to spend time in a way that makes me happy. But I will still plan my time – I feel much more relaxed if I have a plan. My challenge is to not get too out of shape if that plan doesn’t actually happen.

There is always next week – maybe I’ll have more time then!