What Time Is It?

When explaining to students the difference between a wish and a hope, I like to say that we hope for things that are possible, but we wish for things that are impossible. The question of the day: do we wish for more hope or do we hope for more wishes?

We spend barrels of time looking across the street or out the window, staring at what we wish we had. We desperately need to know what’s going on “over there” and muse whimsically on the green grass that grows way over yonder, over the hill. Time flies as our eyes wander, sometimes even seeing right through that which is right before us. We’re fixated on what we don’t have … especially time.

We spend half our lives looking ahead and the other half looking back, so it’s no wonder there is precious little time for the here and now. Cries of “I have no time!” reverberate, echoing justifications and excuses. And yet, we fret and moan. And, on the tails of lost opportunities, or at the end of our days, we may even cry inconsolably – if only we had, or had had, more time. We know better, but we choose to block out the little prying voices in our heads, heeding instead the scurrying ticks and tocks of the indifferent clock. Time marches on, and so do we, yet out of step, out of rhythm and out of sync.

How many times have we been told that “time is money”! Many have neither. It’s the same old tiring and timeless story. We just never learn.Most likely, we don’t appreciate what time we have, because … we created time and then became a slave to it. It’s ironic because though we are finite, time is infinite. Surprisingly, Zen masters would suggest that infinity is in the finite of every instant. Indeed, does anybody really know what time it is?

Benjamin Franklin reminded us that “lost time is never found again” and Martin Luther King, Jr. suggested that “the time is always right to do what is right.” The old proverb “a stitch in times saves nine” still resonates. I propose we do the math.
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PS. Thanks for reading. If you have the time, give me your thoughts.

Suggested Listening (mp3s):
Time Is On My Side  Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is? (NEW EDIT Remastered Version)  Timer  Time The Avenger (2007 Remastered LP Version)  Time In A Bottle  We Have All The Time in The World (2003 Digital Remaster)
Suggested Reading:
Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity  Time Management In an Instant: 60 Ways to Make the Most of Your Day (In an Instant (Career Press))  Time Management for the Creative Person: Right-Brain Strategies for Stopping Procrastination, Getting Control of the Clock and Calendar, and Freeing Up Your Time and Your Life  Successful Time Management For Dummies  14,000 Things to be Happy About.: Revised and Updated edition  The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment  The Book of Awesome  Change Your Thoughts - Change Your Life: Living the Wisdom of the Tao

3 thoughts on “What Time Is It?

  1. Nice post! I agree with you. Why do you think it happens, apart from being slave to it? I would say that people takes things for granted too much. Until it's too late. Or maybe it's more relaxing to behave this way, to feel that there is plenty of time. Or else I think some people might be too stressed out and hyper that there isn't enough time to relax even.

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  2. I disagree with looking forward, we walk backward through time seeing where we have been only bracing against what approaches. the here and now is seen as it slips away into the past. One thing's for sure though the tension of paying too much heed to time will ensure that you will ultimately have less!Fugativeacropof.blogspot.com

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