I have long held the belief that time is but an illusion. Time is not reality, it is merely what gives shape to our reality.
I’m not sure when exactly this idea came to me, I think it was in whichever grade that we learned about Einstein’s theory of relativity, and the idea of time bending. I’m not much up on the science of today to know what the current thought is regarding Einstein’s theory, but I do know it shaped my own theory on time—that time is but an illusion.
We act like all time is equal but is that really true? Is the same hour spent in total frustration trying to figure out where a math error occurred in your checkbook equal to an hour that flies by while laughing and sharing a good meal with friends and family? If our perception equals reality and we perceive an hour spent with loved ones as shorter than an hour spent in frustration, is it really the same thing?
At the beginning of this year my “word” for the year, if you will, or rather my focus was on enough. Not plenty, but enough. Enough of what is needed—the contentment that comes with enough without the scarcity of falling short, while needs are still being met. Enough for what is needed without the gluttonous feeling of too much. Like Goldilocks and the three bears, not too little, not too much, but just the right amount. Just enough. And so I told myself there would be enough time this year for the things that are most important.
This time of year, when summer is quickly sliding into fall, and schools are starting, the sunlight shifts, is when I am always tempted to say, “There just isn’t enough time!” There are always more things I want to do each summer; more hikes to take, more activities to do, more days reading in the sun. I want more! There isn’t enough time to enjoy everything the season has to offer.
Intellectually, we know that there will always be more things we want to do. We know we won’t get to everything, but that doesn’t stop us from still trying to do everything. In the past I have told myself this; I’ve reminded myself to let the unrealistic expectations float on by and, while that has helped some, I still have always found myself partially panicked thinking there just isn’t enough!
This year though I am telling myself that there is enough. There is enough time to do the things that are truly important. There is enough time to slow down and immerse myself in the moment before I look back and think, “That was fun, why didn’t I enjoy it more?”
There is time enough to slow down the moments that mean the most to us, to drink the moment in, and to make time bend and stretch for us until we have breathed in the moment and can thus release it to the ether to live on in our memories. Then the next time we are stuck at a task we despise, we can recall this memory to give us a light reprieve and allow ourselves to be immersed in the reliving of this memory once again—allowing time to stretch and bend for us once more. There is just enough time in each of these moments for us to capture them and store them away in our soul so that we will not be robbed of the moments that we want to last forever. Through our memories we can recall and relive these moments over and over again, stretching that moment on and on. If time is but an illusion, then reality is that we will keep things stored within our hearts forever and that moment will never really fade away.
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A Change of Seasons
P.S.
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