Something occured to me whilst I was relaxing in and around Centerparcs this week.
Time…
Or at least the passing of it and how we’re all forever wishing it away.
We’re always “looking forward” to something.
In the words of a 900 year old Jedi Master:
Never his mind on where he was. Hmm? What he was doing. Hmph
It’s so true it’s unbelieveable – I mean think about it for a second.
From Monday morning you’re looking forward to the weekend. Let’s take it back a notch, you look forward to lunch, then you look forward to going home, is it any wonder that the evening seems to pass by so quickly? Then you’re looking forward to the weekend which seems to fly by without stopping.
Now looking forward to the weekend doesn’t necessarily mean that you hate your job and want to get home, I know that I take great enjoyment in my work, it’s just something that everybody does – how often do you hear people say “thank (insert name of worshipped deity here/random swear word) it’s Friday?” We look forward to our own personal, private time.
Another example is that you book a holiday and you spend the next 6-12 months looking forward to that, counting down the days, wishing your life away. It’s got to stop.
I turned 28 this week. It’s been almost 10 year since I left school. 10 years! That’s more than a third of my (current) lifespan – I’m working on hanging around for a while longer yet. Still, it’s been a long time. It doesn’t feel like it though.
I did some reading in to time perception a while ago, the way that we measure time is flawed due to there being no anchor which ties it to how old you are – when you’re 10 years old, the 6 week holidays seem to last forever, Christmas’s and Birthdays were ages away, I remember the gap between Christmas and Easter feeling like forever! When I think back to how long the schools days seemed to last – it’s nothing in comparison to work days now and I’m at work for longer!
Now that I’ve had 27 full summers, the 6 weeks in the middle doesn’t actually feel like a great amount of time in the grand scheme of things, and it’s not really.
I guess marketing and shops are partly to blame, Christmas Decorations for sale in September, Cadburys Cream Eggs for sale in January, everyone tries so hard to push through to the next stage of the year.
Everyone looks forward to the next pay day, counting down the days till the overdraft is cleared in the bank account. We spend so much time looking towards the future, we often forget to stop once in a while and take a good look around.
We went shopping today and I tried to slow myself down, tried to take the time to have a look around, in a shoe shop whilst waiting for my nephew’s feet to be measured I spent time taking in all of the different colours, shapes, little details I’d usually miss. I’m usually that concentrated on walking around from one place to the next that I just don’t take any of this in at all.
It was interesting in Centerparcs not wearing a watch, time seemed to last longer, leisurely walks could be enjoyed and it was nice to sit back and take everything in. After being surrounded by woodland for the week and not being able to see much past 20m, coming out and looking around a big city from the passenger seat of the car sends you on a head trip.
I’m going to try to stop looking forward to the future and try spending some more time in the present. I’m going to go to work every morning and (try to) enjoy every minute of every day, take everything as it comes and deal with things in a more logical manner. I’ll still be booking holidays and they’ll be something to look forward to, but not at the expense of the present. At the end of the day, we have all the time in the world, we should make sure that we try to enjoy it. I know I’m guilty of this most days, I need to try to work out ways in which I can enjoy every minute of every day and stop wishing my life away.
