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.
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