Now is when life happens.

Time.

Such a peculiar something it is. Some think of time as a fundamental structure of the universe, unaffected by the goings on of mankind, a kind of dimension in which events takes place in sequence.

Others view time as an intellectual human construct, time is neither an event or a something, and is therefore not measurable. (Well, not by humans anyways) 

Although there may be many different ways to define what time is exactly, for most of us, time plays a huge part in how we live and organise our lives.

 Our experience of time often falls into one of three different terms: the past, the present, and the future. Often we slip and slide through the terms, occasionally even finding it hard to differentiate between the terms. Memories belong in the past, imagination in the future, and physical pain (for instance) belong in the present.

However, a painful memory from the past can trigger the imagination into envisaging further pain in the future, making the present a mixture of all three tenses.

Physically engaging in "time travel" at this point in time is not possible, but what about time travelling in the mind?

Could not a memory perhaps be viewed as travelling back in time? Could not visualization perhaps be viewed as time travelling into the future?  (There are many books on that particular kind of time travelling: "If you can visualize it, you can make it real.")

Old as I am, I have started to consider if perhaps not many of us find the past and/or the future easier to deal with than the present.

The thing with "now" as I see it, is that to truly be present in it, requires an incredible amount of attention, discipline and single-mindedness. It is so easy to slip into thinking ahead or thinking back without even being aware of doing so.

Thich Nhat Hanh, a Vietnamese Buddhist monk, challenges the reader in his book "Peace in every Breath" to focus all his/her attention on really tasting every bite of food when eating something, to really taste every sip of water, tea, etc. when drinking as a way of staying in the present. "Why not I thought, let's try it." Wow. Such a simple task, yet so incredibly revealing at the same time. This simple task made me realise just how often the mind wanders all over the place, so over and over I had to bring my attention back to the taste. This simple exercise lead me to ponder how I could apply it to other areas of my life, as in "wherever you are, be there". 

In many cultures, goal-setting is considered a valuable tool for personal achievement, and I get that, but perhaps it can also be an "obstacle", making it more difficult to live in and experience the present?

We walk and run on treadmills with headphones plugged in, we walk outdoors with headphones plugged in (guilty as charged), we ride exercise bikes with headphones plugged in, we ride buses, trains, planes, bikes, with headphones plugged in, we can even swim laps in a pool with water-tight headphones plugged in, and so on. We have goals to attain, so we focus on attaining our goals rather than on where we are, who or what is next to us, or what kind of nature/landscape/city-scape we are in.... having headphones on we can "isolate" ourselves from outer distractions and stay firmly focused on our goals.  

For many of us, the way we live our lives is pretty much organised/sorted/determined by "units of time": how many units of work we do in a day, how many units of sleep we need each day, how many units of chores we have to do in a day, how many units of exercise we have/need to do in a day, how many units we allow ourselves for eating each day, how many units we allow for inter action with friends and family each day, ....and so on. 

Most of my life I have lived a very goal-orientated, time-constricted and organised life, absolutely taking "time" for granted, until one day when I came to realise that I was not enjoying life. When asked what I did for "fun", I found myself stumped? Fun? I was perplexed. After weeks of pondering the question I concluded that I had no idea...so now I had a new goal: to find out what I considered as "fun".  I quickly came up with stuff that I used to consider to be "fun", but now no longer seemed fun at all. I decided that I needed to re-define the term "fun", so fun became: "enjoyable, no strings attached".

So, playing air-hockey was "fun" I discovered, so was jumping around the house to loud music when no-one was around, so was inventing different recipes (food), so was painting large paintings, so was browsing second hand book stores...etc. Interestingly, when I am engaged in doing these things, time no longer exists, all there is, is the pure experience of being in the moment. (Qualia = pure experience)

Time flies. Time drags. There's not enough time. There's too little time. There's too much time. Time heals all wounds. Time is a human construct. Time is "real". Time is a mindset. Time is measured in seconds, minutes, hours, weeks, months, years, etc. Time is either the past, the present, or the future. Time can be wasted, treasured, squandered, experienced.

Much like life: it can be wasted, treasured, squandered, and or experienced.

And like time, how much of it each of us are allotted is not for us to take for granted, neither do I believe that life is something for us to take for granted either.

Each new moment presents for us an opportunity to experience something if we but take the time to notice it.

"It's being here now that is important. There's no past and there's no future. Time is a very misleading thing. All there ever is, is now. We gain experience from the past, but we can't relive it; and we can hope for the future, but we don't know if there is one." (George Harrison) 

Look up. Look out. Look in. 

Touch. Taste. Smell.

And listen.

Are we living in an age of fear and suspicion? What happened to innocent until proven guilty?

Death.

Always the smell of death.

He pulls his son close to his chest as if to say to death: "Stay away! This is my son and you're not taking him as well!"

The ship's deck is packed with people. All afraid, all with the smell of death invading their senses, all with hearts and minds fragmented, tormented, and barely held together.

Brokenness, .....the cost of  having faced death close-up, too many times.

The wind is relentless, the chattering and squawking sound of the seagulls insistent, and the black, thick, suffocating, black smoke from the overworked ship engine... over powering.

Emil coughs, a dry, bone-chilling hacking cough.

Abraham bends down and puts his ear to Emil's chest and anxiously listens. 

It doesn't sound good. Abraham has been worried about Emil's cough for months, but ever since they boarded the clapped-out tub of a "ship", Emil's cough has steadily been getting worse.

"But," Abraham says to himself, "what choice did I have?"

Abraham and Emil are alone now.. During the last bombing attack of their little town, his wife, his two little girls, his mother and father, and his beloved dog "Razzo" had all been killed. The only reason that Abraham and Emil are still alive is that at the time of the bombing, they had both been at the medical center in another town waiting to see a doctor. By the time they arrived home everything, and all their loved ones, were gone. 

"Dad, when are we going to get there" Emil suddenly asks.

The sound of Emil's voice brings Abraham back to the present.

"Not too long, son, not too long now" Abraham answers.

Abraham pulls his son closer, gives the boy a tentative kiss on top of his head then whispers into his son's ear: "Shhhh, be still now son, shhh...."

Emil, safely nestled beneath his father's strong arms, is worried about his dad. He knows that his dad is trying to make everything seem okay, but Emil also knows that the ship they are on is not safe, the crew operating it is not safe, and the little bit of food they are given sporadically, for sure is not safe. Last time the ship's crew gave them something to eat, he and his father had been sick for days after.

Just thinking about it makes Emil feel queasy. Emil hates war. Ever since the stupid war begun, Emil has been scared. Scared of the loud noises, scared of the silences, scared that his family would be killed, scared that he would be killed, scared of the fires in the night, and scared of the morning light illuminating all the brokenness: the broken towns, the broken buildings, the broken homes, the broken people, the broken hearts, and the broken hopes.

Ever since the time when all that was left of their family was him and his father, Emil has watched the light of hope in his father's eyes slowly dissipate and almost disappear.

"I must be strong, I have to be strong for dad" Emil says to himself and then continues "he needs me".

Emil takes a deep breath, and although just eight years old, he knows a lot more about life and suffering than such a young child is supposed to know.

Suddenly: Look! Look over there! There are people coming to welcome us! We are safe!".

Three words.

Three words that brings hope.

OR?????

Who are the people coming to "welcome" them?

Picture it.

Who would you like the "welcomers" to be if it was you on that ship?

Border patrol? Police?

Or: people from some government arm who scoops you up and transport you away to some kind of internment camp?

or: handcuffs you, separates you from the rest of your family and then drive you off to an undisclosed destination?

or: have your children taken away from you to "God knows where" under the heading of "for their own good"? 

It baffles me that people escaping wars and other catastrophes seeking refuge in another country are not treated as "innocent until proven guilty".  To put someone behind bars requires proof of an act of criminality, as in, they are supposed to be presumed to be innocent until proven guilty, so why does not the same principle apply to human beings seeking refuge?
Are we enlightened or are we living in an age of fear and suspicion where we convict and judge people as guilty before we even attempt to seek any proof of guilt?
I seriously hope not.

Opinion is a point of view....so is perspective

How we see things, often depends on whether we see the whole picture or mere a part of it. If this is all we see, then this is probably a black square. Engaging one's imagination, perhaps one may go on to create a narrative to go along with it: This could be a close-up of something black as in a black laptop, a black mouse pad, a black car, or the end of universe, the bottom of a very deep and light-less cave, a black square on a chess board, etc. etc. Or, it could be just a black square, full stop. In order to move past the concept of it being just a black square, more information is needed. So, let me offer more information.

                                                                                      Some more information. What is this now? A         black square with some other colours on it? An abstract painting? Clouds on a dark night with outlines of trees, buildings, or other objects? Even with a vivid imagination, it would be difficult to say for sure what this may actually be....more information is needed, although some of us may be quite satisfied with viewing it as just an abstract painting.
                                                                     

Okay. Now one can see definitive outlines. With the addition of more information one may safely conclude that this is a specific something. The colours, and the lines, .....the placement of them seem deliberate.  What it actually depicts is still hard to tell, although for some of us it may still be an abstract painting...and that's okay, no further information needed. For someone curious by nature (such as myself), this image would probably conjure up a desire for more information in order to find out what the "bigger picture" is...
The definitive lines, the deliberate placement of them, the choice of colours and the placement of them, the brush strokes.... sometimes precise and sometimes wispy....more information, please.

Aha! It's a bird of some sort.... a raven? A crow? A black bird? Just that little bit more of a perspective/information and there is enough information to deduce that this is definitely some kind of bird.
There is a beak, the head looks like a birds head, and it does not take much imagination to "see" parts of its wings. It would now be difficult to describe the image as an abstract image, for most of us this is now a "figurative" image depicting a bird. (What kind of bird, well, that may vary.)

The "bigger picture". That, which from the beginning was just a black square, now, with the disclosure of more and more information, I think I can now safely say that we all see a bird of some kind, and being the person who painted this image, I can add one more bit of information; it is a crow. Albeit my own interpretation......

So, what is this blog all about? you may ask.
Perspective, or put another way: point of view.
Having an opinion, a point of view, is something common to most of us. What is also common for most of us is that we often form our opinions quite quickly without reflecting on exactly how and or why we have come to hold those opinions.

Speaking from my own experiences, I have had to alter my opinions/perspectives many times about many things. First hand experiences, seeking additional information, deepening one's understanding, increasing one's knowledge base, and or listening to others points of view, can be very helpful in being able to see a bigger picture. (According to some, how we view life is a matter of perspective.)
Opinions, although they may often feel like the "truth", are often views based on our beliefs about something more often than facts, and or knowledge.
What do you see? A black square. What if I told you that it is actually the breast part of a crow? Don't be silly. What if I showed you that it is? How are you going to do that? By showing you a bigger picture. The black square is just a small part of the crow.

"Most misunderstandings in the world could be avoided if people would simply take the time to ask: what else could this mean?"  (Shannon L. Alder)

"For what you see and hear depends a good deal on where you are standing: it also depends on what sort of person you are."  (C. S. Lewis)

We begin to learn wisely when we are willing to see the world from other people's perspective."
                                              (Toba Beta)