As I write this, I am waiting for my daughter Becca's plane to land. She is winging her way here, after 4 months in India, via UK (10 days to check out possible schools) and Toronto (overnight at my brother's while she unpacked and repacked a bag she left with them at Christmas time)....waiting time.....
Tomorrow night at SMUS, our Board of Governors is hosting a dinner to honour those faculty who are retiring or who have been at the school for 25 years. There are quite a few of them, and they really honour our profession with their dedication, even after all this time....celebration time....
This weekend, my son waited to hear if he had gotten a job he interviewed for late last week. I think time passed slowly for him...and getting the job would have shaken up lots of his timelines, including his Masters. He found out he didn't get it - though they liked him and want to stay connected, he needs to spend time doing the work, not just studying it at school. And if you are a student who has spent time studying, you are hoping that someone will take you on so that you can build your practice...all of us had to start somewhere - to build our experience - to put in our time!....experiences over time.....
My mom just had knee replacement surgery last week, and now she is learning to walk again. She was in hospital for 4 days, and back in today to check out some swelling and redness. I am sure that all she wants is for her knee to be back to or even better than 'normal'... and yet it's going to take time....healing time....
I am also conscious of the time ticking toward summer, when all that I have known for the past 6 years will shift. I want to make the most of the moments, savour conversations, rejoice in a great Brain Awareness Week, cause it will be my last one. That same time that is leaking away, is also leading me to a place where time is opening up - new opportunities and experiences, new memories, new conversations....leaving time....
This is the paradox. Often when we want something to happen - time seems to crawl along, and when we hope for more time, to move slowly toward an event, it flies by!
As humans, we live under the allusion that we have control and yet, time ticks away, oblivious to our relationship with it. In our time out here, we have talked with more people who are of the Buddist faith and one piece that I have learned and appreciated in those conversations is the importance of living in the moment - not yesterday or tomorrow, but right now. It's also interesting that a quote by Jim Elliot (below) speaks to living fully in the moment and he was a Christian Missionary in the 1950's who was killed by a tribe that he was living with.
It seems that as humans we are seeking at times to make time go faster (waiting for Becca), slower (an anticipated leaving or loss) and in doing so we might miss a moment in which to fully engage in the world around us. As we make our To Do lists, and press up against the time we have, the first item on our list needs to be 'be present' - moment by moment, day by day...and in that presence are the gifts time gives us....Perhaps being present in today, this moment, now, is the response to this paradox?
