by Kat | Nov 25, 2024 | General, Words
We may try to think of you, Time,
but you, Time, think of yourself continually,
without need of imagination, assistance, or witness.
— Jane Hirshfield, an excerpt of her poem Time Thinks of Time*
Time was a thief this month… or perhaps it was its typical selfish-self… as the minutes, hours, days, and weeks raced past.
I have spent as much of my time as I could, settled into Time… the book… and when reading was not possible, I listened and re-listened to some of the essays read by the authors here. (You will find Jane reading her poem, Time Thinks of Time in the list… and it is so very worth the listen!)
What a perfect serendipitous gift this issue was… and it has made me think and rethink my thoughts on time. Perhaps it is just being at this point in my life, closer to the end than to the beginning, that the focus on time has bubbled to the surface of my thinking. But I had so many things that tipped me towards this word last year… far too many to be a coincidence. I think perhaps that some other force gently nudged me into thinking about time. I am so glad I followed the nudges because it has been a magnificent year of learning! It makes me a little sad to turn the calendar from November to December in a few short days, ushering in my last month with this word.
Except… it won’t really be the end, will it? Time being a constant… at least as we know it in our days. Or is there a way to change our perception of time. As Ms. Hirshfield so brilliantly reminds me in her poem, “What might be different, could we interrupt you?”
And so, this month, I set out to discover ways to do just that… interrupt time. I’d like to say that I found an abundance of things, but sadly that is not true… there was not enough time… but the thing that topped the list turns out to be the best interrupter ever created! That is, of course, wee Franklin. He is the Master Time Disrupter! But then, he is currently the Master Disrupter of All Things!
Master Disrupter of All Days wondering if there will be a second brekkie today…pretty please?!
But despite his disruptions this month I was reminded that the simple act of knitting a row or two is an excellent pause on racing time… that and a quietly napping pup!
I shall continue to contemplate ways of interrupting time… and perhaps the act of contemplating is the first (and best?) interrupter of time!
As always, I am so thankful that Carolyn provides a space for us to share each month. Way back when I started having a word focus, I had much to learn… and staying focused was not easy! Carolyn helped cement this practice for me by providing a reminder and a space to share. I cannot thank her enough for all that she has given to me!
Stop by and see how others fared with their words this month!
*Time thinks of Time by Jane Hirshfield published in Emergence Magazine, Volume 5: Time.
Header photo by Skitterphoto
by Kat | Oct 28, 2024 | General, Words
October has always been my favorite month. I love the weather… it eases back and forth between summer and autumn. The sun is at the most glorious angle and it lights up everything with the most beautiful glow. And even if there is a grey day, the trees provide the most beautiful light!
So this month I tried my best to practice keeping time versus time keeping me. Or maybe in better words… being a conductor of what is happening versus a recorder of what has happened. Although, sometimes being the latter is crucial to a day, I don’t want to be focused on making sure I record everything. I much prefer to look at a day and the time allowed to it use it as best I can.
As the month draws to a close, I am so grateful for 10 days in Erie… Presque Isle helps me find that vertical time sweet spot… and that makes the days feel like they stretch on forever.
And last Friday, when we brought wee Franklin home, a new kind of time started… the time of new beginnings! And so since then I have been immersed in that time. New beginning time is … time consuming and exhausting and at times hilarious. Franklin has two speeds currently…. fast as f**k and sound asleep. I have spent more time on the floor in the past 3 days than I do in a month! (Yay for all that getting up and sitting down!!) I have been trying to be a precise time keeper each night, making some observations on the day… but that exhaustion thing is very real. My preference is to write things down manually, but I have been cheating with some electronic notes on my phone… I will eventually get them onto paper, but for now it is a quick way to remember things!
Speed: passed out.
And so… as I try and savor every last moment of October, I am happy that I had a good chunk of the month where I excelled at keeping time… it makes these ending days of just focusing on making sure I am a good time keeper not a bad thing at all!
Ten months in and my delight with Time has not waned! I am eager for these last two months to show me new things about Time!
Again, a huge thanks to Carolyn for providing a place for us to all gather together and share our progress!
I will hopefully be back on Wednesday with some unraveling (I am not sure about any actual knitting, but I promise to have more photos of wee Franklin!)
Header photo by Cats Coming
by Kat | Sep 30, 2024 | General, Words
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!
Photo by Eugene Shelestov
by Kat | Aug 26, 2024 | General, Words
I thought we were having an earthquake when the Enterprise August hit Warp speed. — Robert Bryndza
I hope you will allow me a bit of a tweak in the line from Mr. Bryndza’s The Not So Secret Emails of Coco Pinchard! Like the Enterprise looked when Captain Kirk asked Scotty for Warp speed is how August felt to me… here and (almost) gone in a brief second. And I am both thankful and sad that it has felt so.
So very thankful that time has not dragged… and unbelievably sad that this month has just raced by.
I have spent much of my time this month dabbling… Doing bits of this and that. A bit of stitching here, a bit of painting there, a few rows knit here, more rows ripped out there. The days and my dabbling feeling a bit like an hour glass… turning over when all the sand has fallen to begin the process again.
I have also been reading thoughts about time. Mostly, reading and rereading Layli Long Soldier’s An Essay of (K)nots and Footnotes. Like all of her writing, it takes me time to settle in and begin to “get it”… but once I do… well, those feelings are the reason I keep reading and rereading! She makes me just the tiniest bit wiser.
This is how time works. A tapestry of interconnectivity. Pull on a loose thread, and find it woven through to the first (k)not. — Layli Long Soldier
As a “fidgeter” I am one to pull those loose threads… and, as inner perfectionist me is wont to do… quickly tie on a new thread and keep moving forward.
However, this month has helped me see that it is wiser to just leave the loose thread visible… knowing it is an important part of life… a visible reminder of when one thing ended. Then comes the hope of waiting for a new thread to begin and allowing myself the time to live in the in-between.
As always, I am so very thankful to Carolyn for providing us the space and encouragement each month to share our word work. Please stop and see how others have journeyed this month.
See you all back here on Wednesday!
Header photo by Jordan Benton
by Kat | Jul 29, 2024 | General, Words
In this there is no measuring with time, a year doesn’t matter, and ten years are nothing. – Rilke
I started this month in one place, ended entirely in another and time is the enemy in each space.
July has always been a rough month for me… and this year was no exception. When I was a child this was the month that boredom would begin to creep in and as a child growing up with absolutely no AC, the heat of the long summer days fed that boredom. July: the month of extremes… and this year, July decided to Extreme on Steroids, as it were. Hot, long, dragging days. And dry… so dry… the lack of rain is a harsh master. I really wanted this July to not be one where I was having Visions of Autumn dancing in my head… and while they were not constant… they were there.
And if I somehow thought that those long, hot days dragged by… well, the end of the month showed that even time that feels like it is inching along can be brought to a complete standstill.
So what is there to learn about days on end that feel like time stands still…when you don’t want it to stand still at all.
- I know that I cannot escape the “time standing still” moments… but instead of fighting with them, I have tried to savor the still space by nurturing myself. I have read so much poetry in the past days… poems that have filled that “time standing still” space. [And perhaps, the poet gods have even pre-planned for me… I discovered The Sealey Challenge (thanks to Abram Vanningen and Joanne Diaz’ latest podcast) and I am loving the idea! Fortunately, I have a healthy stack of poetry books to get me started.]
- It is okay to be sad and to sit quietly with that sadness.
- It is okay to feel a sense of emptiness and that things around you are not quite right.
Prior me would have pushed away all these things and slapped a smile on my face and told myself to “get over it all” and I am so thankful that all the prior years words have shown me that right now it is okay for time to stand still… it will move again when I am ready for it to.
As always, but most especially this month… I am so grateful to Carolyn for gathering us all together and providing a space for us to share.
I will see you all back here on Wednesday.
by Kat | May 28, 2024 | General, Words
Time is the horizontal dimension of life, the surface layer of reality. Then there is the vertical dimension of depth, accessible only through the portal of the present moment. — Eckhart Tolle
I first became intensely aware of this phenomena after listening to this conversation with Jenny Odell on the Emergence Magazine podcast. I was fascinated with the question Jenny asks, “What other kinds of time” and so began my journey with time this year… seeking what other kinds of time and especially vertical time! My main focus this year is to find the access point that takes me from the horizontal dimension of time… the time of the clock and the calendar to that magical moment when passing time seems to stand still!
I want to point out that this is not a moment where you think “will this day ever end” or “why is this day dragging on” or the “I’m so bored” moments but rather those moments where are no longer thinking of time… you are absorbed into the moment you are in and time fades from your mind.
One place that instantly finds vertical time, at least for me, is Presque Isle State Park… it is almost as if just entering begins to deconstruct time’s structure. But where else could I find that same phenomena?
I was fortunate to have LOTS of vertical time earlier this month when we were in Erie. But could I find pockets of vertical time at home?
I started from my “baseline” of seeking “vertical time” – meditation. Although when I began my meditation process a long time ago, I had not a thought of vertical time… rather, I wanted to find a way to find calm, to find quiet, to find a connection with myself. But years in, I am still not a meditation master… I can meditate for 15-ish minutes and then my brain is niggling me to “find something else to do.” And… in all honesty… I am well aware of the time passing as I meditate. This hurdle is why I began to include poetry and journaling to my meditation time and by making that change has moved my “meditation” time from the struggle to 15 minutes to something that is not a struggle at all… before I know it 30 to 45 minutes have ticked past without any awareness at all. A small pocket of vertical time in my day!
Of course, knitting can do this but perhaps not in the best way… as in I can completely tune out of everything when I am knitting… which is not always a good thing. Don’t ask me what we watched on TV (perhaps that is part of the problem, lol) and for sure don’t try and have an in-depth discussion with me! But what about spinning? In the course of my 100 Day project, I put away my spinning… but now that I am done, I think I need to get it back out because spinning is another one of those activities that melts time away… but I stay very engaged in the activity of spinning… and it absolutely has a meditative quality to it!
I mentioned poetry and writing already… but my “new-ish” habit of 15-ish minutes of drawing/painting is going quite well… I am blowing past those 15 minutes and before I know it time has “gotten away from me.” And I am having such fun… that seems to happen when I step through the vertical time portal!
But as I said… this concept was really the focus of my time study this year. I am excited to continue to look for pockets of vertical time in my day!
As always, I really appreciate Carolyn holding a space for us each month. Stop by and see where the other “worders” journeyed with their word this month!
See you all back here tomorrow with some Unraveling!
**Photo above by Mat Brown found on Pexels
