It is hard to believe the summer of 2023 is starting to come to a close. After the last two years, this year seems to be flying by. I also have many activities occurring in my life, I suspect this higher level of activity is increasing that sense of time zipping by, perhaps powered by a scooter or some other mechanical device.
I also have the sense that the days are moving slowly, I suspect because of the hot days and the difficulty I have sleeping at night. We are fortunate enough to have air conditioning and we run it at night, but it’s still difficult to sleep well. Add in nights with high humidity and hotter than normal temperatures, and sleep is sometimes elusive. A bit contradictory that the year is moving too quickly and too slowly but it seems a good summary for the year so far.
In the meantime, I am practicing the art of respecting the moment, whether good or bad. There are times I stop and look around, taking in what is around me, aware that this precise moment, this arrangement of people and things around me will never occur again in quite the same way. The moment is gone, often lost even to memory, just another bit of life ticking away like an old clock on the wall.
In our current society, time seems to be viewed as a precious resource that can be hoarded and saved for future use. We are surrounded by time saving machines, methods of improving productivity, lists of tips on how to get more done in less time while rushing through our lives.
In the end, that saved time turns to memories at best, at worst the moments are long forgotten, just an extraordinary moment treated as the ordinary. There isn’t a time bank we can pull our savings from or even a mattress stuffed with old memories we’ve hid away. The only thing left in the end is our memories of places and people who affected our lives. Better to respect each moment as we live it and understand that we only get one chance to live through them.
May everyone enjoy their summer and my best wishes to those enduring excessive heat and extreme weather. My thoughts are with those in Maui who have lost so much and have a hard recovery in front of them. A final bit, a poem I wrote about time, called The Moment
The Moment
Stop
Take a breath
Breath again, deeply
Look around, see the things
People, animals, plants, physical objects
That are around you.
You will never see them again
In the same way you see them in this moment.
The moment is gone, another replacing it
Another and another, marching forward
At least in the way we perceive time
A resource in short supply,
Too little of it available as we
Hurry, scurry, rushing, running
Thinking we are hoarding time
Saving it for the future
Keeping it for some future rainy day
When we finally
Stop
Take a breath
Breath again deeply
Savoring the moment
Pictures by J.T. Harpster, prints of selected photos can be found at our Redbubble shop
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