Time ~ those fleeting moments

I have been blog silent recently. My Slovenia account was stalled for awhile but I have just updated it. My apologies that it is slow in coming but it is after all at the mercy of my muse and of course, time!

Truly, being busy is only part of the reason that blogging has almost come to a halt. The other reason is that blogging has lost its initial lustre. More and more, I find myself struggling to prioritise my time between work, activities and the people who matter in my life. I wonder if it is only me that has this problem. Perhaps I am totally hopeless at time management.

Time flies, doesn’t it?

I just found out that an ex boss of mine has been posted to Taiwan. I have not met him for years. We have been talking about meeting up since forever but we never really got round to that. Now, he has already left for Taiwan.

Another friend called recently asking if I have dropped off the face of earth. The last I met her was just after she had given birth to her second kid at the end of last year. The kid could probably crawl by now.

How fleeting these moments are and how soon they are gone. It made me think perhaps I have not made as much of it as I should have.

How do you measure time?

I was chatting with a friend recently. His work is marked by the period of each contract and he just got into another three year project in Saudi Arabia. To him, time is measured in blocks of weeks that he gets to come back to Malaysia.

Another friend works as an engineer on a vessel. His job requires him to go out to sea for four months at a time. When he returns to land, he gets a four-month rest with absolutely nothing to do. For him, his time is measured in blocks of four months.

For me? Time seems to be immeasurable. I seem to fleet from one thing to another and before I know it, six months have passed. Somehow I find myself unable to take control of it.

Can you?

I leave you with this beautiful piece on …


Time
(from The Prophet)
by Khalil Gibran

And an astronomer said, 'Master, what of Time?'

And he answered:

You would measure time the measureless and the immeasurable.

You would adjust your conduct and even direct the course of your spirit according to hours and seasons.

Of time you would make a stream upon whose bank you would sit and watch its flowing.

Yet the timeless in you is aware of life's timelessness,

And knows that yesterday is but today's memory and tomorrow is today's dream.

And that that which sings and contemplates in you is still dwelling within the bounds of that first moment which scattered the stars into space.

Who among you does not feel that his power to love is boundless?

And yet who does not feel that very love, though boundless, encompassed within the centre of his being, and moving not from love thought to love thought, nor from love deeds to other love deeds?

And is not time even as love is, undivided and paceless?

But if in you thought you must measure time into seasons, let each season encircle all the other seasons,

And let today embrace the past with remembrance and the future with longing.