Time marches on
“Time plays like an accordion in the way it can stretch out and compress itself in a thousand melodic ways. Months on end may pass blindingly in a quick series of chords, open-shut, together-apart; and then a single melancholy week may seem like a year’s pining, one long unfolding note."—Julia Glass
I really loved that quote from Julia Glass this past week reading it in my Sociolgical Theory course. When I complete this class, I have one more before finally graduating with my masters this December! I am on what they call the 32-year plan, graduating high school waaaaay back in 1990 (there were no dinosours back then though), then my bachelors in 2010 and now a masters in 2022. What’s interesting is that the whole of that 32 years has seemed at times like it just went by so very fast. How is that? I know I used to feel like days were dragging, waiting on 15 and that learners permit took forever! Don’t get me started on that year, it was probably more like 10 years until I turned 16 and got my own wheels and freedom with it. Each second of the clock seemed to tick slowly, while I was waiting to grow up.
Then all of the sudden, BOOM! I’m 50! I’m a grandpa, I’m grey, I grunt standing up and sitting down, what the heck happened?! Why does time seem to slip so quickly now? Even work days seem to zoom by and the weekends are even faster. I think each of us is faced with the fact that we can’t stop time but we can do things that slow it in our daily lives. Part of it for me is to stand still in my mind. To take in the things around me better. To smell each smell, to hear each sound, to hug who ever needs it, to enjoy a few more minutes on my comfy pillow in the morning after the alarm goes off.
I wonder, if I practiced more, could I make the good times seem more like a long unfolding note like Glass says. Instead of allowing the bad things in life to take up that space focus on the good and beautiful things that happen for me every day. Take time today to do just that. Hug just a little longer, stay just a little while in your happy place and just slow down those seconds the best you can. You and I my friend are worth every tick of that old clock.
