Tick Tock

We are surrounded by time from the moment we open our eyes in the morning until we turn off the light at night. Time is a precious resource, like money, love and good feelings—the more we grasp at it, the more elusive it becomes. Time is a continuum measured by events kicked off with birth and ending with death. It’s the instrument for organizing our temporal existence as human beings. Clock time handles all the practicalities of life. As Einstein said, “The only reason for time is so that everything doesn’t happen at once.”

Typical of human nature, we’ve created a devil out of time. We fear or worship it and run from or race toward it. The root of the problem isn’t with clock time, however, but with the psychological time in which we’ve become stuck. Trapped in the mind, we dwell on the problems created by our thoughts. Psychological time is rooted in past and future. It’s the platform for our dreams: “When I meet my soul mate, when I have my dream house, when I … .” Reality becomes distorted when psychological time is the lens through which we perceive our lives. Our reality is never current; it’s suspended in some other time!

If Australian Aboriginies are asked what time it is, they will answer “now.” They know that the present moment is the only place where there is no time. The now is the point between past and future—it’s a rapid exit out of clock and psychological time! Everything happens in the present moment, and everything that ever happened and will ever happen can only happen in the present moment.

Weave this truth into your time. Remain present when you use clock time. When the sound of the ticking becomes deafening, remember the words of Lao Tzu, “Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.” When we awaken to the illusion of time we can see that there’s absolutely nothing to fear and nothing to wait for. There is no meantime—only now time!