Time is the fire in which we burn. — Gene Roddenberry
I have reached the portion of the year that feels like I am racing against time. The days are growing ever shorter… both in the hours of daylight and what time I might have left to me. How appropriate that the seasonal changes are reminding me clearly that I am well into the autumn of my days.
This is not exactly a bad thing… or at least that is what I tell myself as I get up with the familiar aches and pains of my life. Those morning moments as I try to “get myself all working again” are the most humbling ones of my day.
I have spent this month contemplating what I want to accomplish yet this year in my study of time. Nine months in and I still am learning new things about time… or I am still learning new things about myself. I believe both things are true… and that is wildly invigorating! Learning is life!
I read a very interesting little book this month… Carlo Rovelli’s The Order of Time. When I first finished it, I thought… well, there’s not much here. But I am rethinking my initial thoughts on that little book… it is one I have not stopped thinking about. Most especially Rovelli’s thoughts on memory… he likens memory to time, or rather, that our memories are time.
This is time for us. Memory. A nostalgia. — Carlo Rovelli
Think you haven’t used your time wisely? Dip into the well of your memories and see just how perfectly you have used it.
I have spent lots of time in my memory well and have added pages chapters to the memory journal I am making for my kids. And in these moments, I find that time is not burning… rather I have found another point of Jenny Odell’s “vertical time” … where the passing of time stands still.
And that, dear friends, is a very good distraction from the feeling of trying to stay ahead of those flames devouring the minutes of my day!
As always, I am so grateful for Carolyn gathering us all together to share our progress each month.
Happy Monday everyone, I will see you all back here on Wednesday!
Some excellent points here. I am scrapbooking memories at the moment, and a little snippet of something I find just triggers memories of things I had forgotten.
Yes, great points you are making here (and I hear you on the morning ritual of getting yourself in working order!!). I may have to look for that book on time. It sounds interesting.
I used to think of myself as “middle-aged” until it dawned on me that I was well past the middle unless I was going to live to be 134. It’s a little jarring (but also eye-opening and a call to action) to realize that you have already lived more time than the time you have left ahead.
This might just be too deep for me on a Monday morning. Or maybe I don’t want to think about being in the September of my life. This doesn’t fit well with my OLW, delight! hahaha!
Oh . . . the march of time . . . (And I think I’m well past the “September” of my life at this point. Like Bonny said . . . if I”m “middle age” now, I’m going to live to be very, very old . . . )
It’s an interesting perspective shift to think of time over the course of our lives instead of just over a year. I certainly hope I’m at the midpoint of my life (even better, just before it), but we never really know. I do think we need to think of “middle aged” as being the long period between being young (as in childhood) and being really old!
I’ll admit that a lot of the Rovelli book was over my head, but I do like the idea of memory being time for us. We can time travel by thinking back to a memory whenever we like!
Kudos to you for remaining open to what that little book had to offer. (It’d have been so easy to set it aside or write it off.) It seems you’ve read a handful of books relative to your word this year that have proven valuable.
I have a special friend (also named Carolyn) in my life who’s 80. On a mutual friend’s 50th birthday, the women were offering up what they believed to be their ‘best age.’ This friend shouted out, “Today! This is the best that it gets.” A gal next to her said, “But don’t you feel so achy every morning?” And she said, “Oh, sure. The nuts + bolts might be shit, but I wake up every day glad to be me and glad that I don’t care what anyone thinks anymore.” ♥
I love the quotes about time that you’ve shared. That Rovelli book keeps showing up for me, Thank you for mentioning it!
Inside I am forever young, but my physical body tells me differently! Memory keeping is a favorite thing for me to do to destress and remember.
Perhaps because I am way past middle age, I love the idea of vertical time.