Thursday was any other day filled with appointments and deadlines. Why is it when I have entirely too much to do, Mantra decides to sing and block out the sounds of the mundane things (like ambulance sirens)? After this one was on paper, the irritation ebbed.
Once I read through what made it to the paper, I had to laugh: Introspection at the hands of a fairy.
As you read Hurry, think about the things which make you scurry. What is it which makes you rush around and accomplish at half-accuracy those things which years ago you would have mastered in moments?
Hurry
When did they appear?
And whence do they spring?
Can we stem the tide?
Make them all disappear?
Piles of things strewn around,
Lists to do and things to get.
Jobs yesterday accomplished
At the end of this day undone.
It moves faster now than before,
Measured in page turns
Rather than the old ticks,
Always a loss in the eternal score.
Remember when minutes were enough
To skate through the piles
Obliterating tasks, buying needs?
When did those things become tough?
We’d fly by deadlines, projects ahead,
Slap together products, no directions.
Now, the lines pass by just as fast,
Not the projects, but we who are dead.
What thief in the night stole Chronos blind?
Who emptied the hourglass
Of its measuring sand?
It’s a crime exceedingly unkind.
Did we do this injustice?
Making the calendar so heavy
We can’t tote it to meetings
Or cart it beyond our avarice ?
Wanting to do and to have it all
We’ve laden our minutes, hours and days
With tasks great and impeccably small.
In the end, lack of time is our downfall.
230220121531
Time moves faster as we get older.
How true is this statement? What makes it true? How do we slow it down?
Bill Hayes
/ February 25, 2012Time – (that stuff made by clocks) – when you get older, starts to hurry, then it starts to race. When you are a child of ten years old, it’s no use thinking about next summer. That’s as far ahead in the future as are the dinsaurs in the past. At that age, a year is after all, 10 per cent of your life. With each passing year, that annual slice of time gets thinner.
It’s all we’ve got and we have to make the best of it. As they say in Ireland, “when God made time, he made plenty of it”
Red
/ February 25, 2012I adore Irish quotes. That one is great!
Thanks for stopping by, Bill.
Red.
awarewriter
/ February 25, 2012We don’t ‘have’ time. We can’t ‘make’ time. We can’t ‘manage’ time. Our concept of time is really our perception of time. Maybe time seems to move faster as we get older because we don’t live in the moment the way children do? Time is artificial. There is only now, the present moment and what we make of that moment.
John
Red
/ February 25, 2012I think you are right about failing to embrace the moment. I have a theory as to why time appears to move faster, but I think I shall hold on to it for the moment.
Red.
prenin
/ February 25, 2012Tempus Fugits as it may,
and all our dreams do fade away,
And with them our immortality…
Prenin.
Red
/ February 25, 2012Such a great haiku! Hmm. Something I had not considered…going to edit. Thank you, Pren!
{HUGZ}
Red.
raymond alexander kukkee
/ February 25, 2012Time itself is being compressed. If you practice not being in a hurry, you won’t know the difference. Toss the Rolex in the trash. Allow nothing to rush you as you nibble on cookies. Enjoy life. Don’t waste a minute, start now. Be very aware of time as you relish and enjoy it–and it will again stretch into infinity for you. “:)
Red
/ February 25, 2012HAHA! Compression. I think you are going to like the flip side of this poem…
Let's CUT the Crap!
/ February 25, 2012I just asked that very question recently: Why does time go faster as we get older?
Maybe it’s because we realize we have less of it ahead of us than behind us. The hourglass indeed is emptying.
Red
/ February 25, 2012You have touched on it, too…Hmm. I see a series being born.
I cannot help by think of something my late husband used to say (and this is one of those I will never understand that quotes) “Drive faster, so we get there before we run out of gas.”
I hope you get a chance to read tonight’s Saturday Evening Post.
Red.
Marc Phillippe Babineau
/ February 25, 2012I find as we get older, the days get slower, the weeks faster and the years go by at blinding speed!
Red
/ February 25, 2012Why do the days go slower? Less demand?
ansuyo
/ February 25, 2012Time management – ugh! Sadly, more conveniences make it worse instead of better.
Red
/ February 25, 2012Makes you wonder why we think they save time.
Derek Mansker
/ February 25, 2012I think it is a matter of making the best of every day. That means we need to slow down and pay attention to who the people are right in front of us. So much of life is spent trying to get to the next place, making the stage you are in less satisfying. Wherever you are, be there 100%. Time never slows down, but at least it you won’t regret it later. (at least that’s the hope)
Red
/ February 25, 2012It is more than hope. It actually works.
Derek Mansker
/ February 25, 2012Hey, look at that! You just vindicated my philosophy. I guess with 10 kids you have probably figured something out. 😉
Red
/ February 25, 2012Wait until you see the next post and the time management series….
El Guapo
/ February 25, 2012El Guapo has learned not to sweat the small stuff.
It all has to get done, but some of it just isn’t important as the rest…
And at this point, he just wants to enjoy the time.
Red
/ February 25, 2012You will greatly benefit from tonight’s Saturday Evening Post. Greatly.