Time is such a greatly misunderstood, precious and valuable element. We all have the same time available to us, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, but how we spend our time is different from person to person. It was always interesting for me to see how many of us (as we grow older) do not know what to do with themselves, they are bored, stuck in the same day to day routine, and instead of using time they are being used by it.
The question I would like to raise in this blog, why is that, and does it have to be that way?
As we 'grow' up we learn to postpone instant gratification and instead are forced to invest our time for a future goal, i.e. dont play with your friends today, but instead study for your math test, so you get a good grade, so you can graduate and one day get a good job.
What happens with us during this time?
As children we experienced things quite differently, of course this was easy with no memory of the past, and no thoughts about the future. There was no tomorrow, no yesterday, but only the present moment, and this is how we lived our life, with full presence of mind and awareness in the here and now. As we 'grew' older this changed quite a bit since we were no longer allowed to daydream and let our imagination run wild. From now on (of course I am talking about the time after we entered the school 'system') life was a matter of doing what we have to do instead of doing what we wanted to.
This was when our whole concept of time changed. Instead of living with full presence in the NOW we learned that we need to sacrifice 'present moment living' for the sake of some future goal. The need to achieve, compete and produce required us to forget how to listen to our inner voice (which is extremely predominant in young children), question reality and learn for ourselves what this thing called life is all about, and instead fit the mold imposed onto us by the system we are part of.
Just one look at our society reveals our greatest modern problem. Nobody has time for anything, but everybody runs from one meeting to another appointment to a social gathering in our need to compensate for the fact that we are utterly lost and confused, but who is really taking the time to question what we know and to contemplate life in order to fully understand our higher purpose as human 'beings.
I would like to end this blog with a cliche you all have heard, but only very few understand, and while I have alienated a few people by using it I have come to realize that it is only true what we have heard:
Time is money. So the question is, are we using it wisely or is time using us?
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2 comments:
Hi there,
I came across your blog through random browsing in many ways and would like to tell you that I enjoyed reading your latest...2-3 posts very much actually. It is quite surprising in many ways to find a journal like yours.
I agree in many respects to what you say about this...in many ways...rat race way of life, we are a society that considers time money and find ourselves in constant, hurried pursuit of one thing or another, without stopping...not even for a moment to question why is it that we find ourselves living life in this way? In many ways people do not question themselves and their way of life enough. However, this is more true of some cultures/countries and...in many ways less true of others do you think?
Hello!
I agree. Most countries are not as much involved in the rat race as we are here the West, especially the USA.
Thanks for your comment, and I hope that we all can learn to make more time for what is important, instead of just rushing through life.
Peace and blessings,
Christoph :o)
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