Moments Don’t Come Back

Today is the end of the week, the end of the month, and the end of the year. Tomorrow begins a new week, a new month, and a new year. We can hang a new calendar on the wall and resume the rest of our lives.

Time is an unusual concept. We understand that it coexists with space and that we have no control over its passage. We have invented ways to measure and keep track of it. Even if we do not “believe” in time, it ultimately catches up with us whether we want it to or not. One day, individually, we will awaken and there will not be any more time to do the things we’ve dreamed of doing. All the warm, fuzzy platitudes that proclaim that it is never too late to do something will be proven false.

The ancient pithy sayings about the past being finished and the future being out of reach remain true. All we have is the present moment in which to live our lives. This is the weekend when many of us ponder these conditions. New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day are perhaps the most nostalgic days of each year.

As we grow older in age, we become more aware of our human, environmental capabilities and limitations. We try to make sense of what we are still able to do, and let go of what we no longer have the physical abilities to accomplish. Our bodies become more brittle and fragile with age. When we become ill or are injured, our healing takes longer. At the time when our lifespan comes closer to its end, we require a larger share of it to maintain wholeness.

We understand these facts, yet it is normal to not obsess over them. Why worry about what we cannot change? We learn to accept the accidents that happen along with the ever present passage of the days and hours which end up changing us despite our protestations. If we have a profound, longterm dream that will likely come to fruition after we have died, now is the time to plan bequeathing the mechanics of that dream to someone who shares our vision. After all, the passage of time is only one factor in the manifestation of our fondest goal.

“But hour follows on hour, minute on minute, each second robbing me of a morsel of myself for the nothing of tomorrow. I shall never experience this moment again.”–19th century French writer, Guy de Maupassant

The second by second progression of integers of digital timepieces continue to advance and the hands of analogue clocks and watches circle the dials. These are the derivatives of sundials, hour glasses and water clocks. They are all technological artifacts that mark the passage of moments. If we contemplate the changing numbers on a digital clock or watch we see the markers of time riding the space-time continuum. Briefly observing a clock or watch is one way to return our consciousness to the present moment.

It is wise to remember that the world is a place where people yearn for our hearts’ desires. Some of those dreams are attainable, others will be inherited by our descendants, and others will always remain idealistic visions. There are scenarios when there is no next time, time-outs, nor second-tries. Living a life is a matter of now or never. After all, moments don’t come back.

Namaste

The Blue Jay of Happiness quotes the former Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams. “Quite a lot of our contemporary culture is actually shot through with a resentment of limits and the passage of time, anger at what we can’t do, fear or even disgust at growing old.”