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
by Kat | May 7, 2024 | General, Words
Don’t let the fear of the time it will take to accomplish something stand in the way of your doing it. The time will pass anyway; we might just as well put that passing time to the best possible use. — Earl Nightingale
One part of my Year of Time was to contemplate blocks of time and I felt like a 100 Day Project was a good thing for contemplation. So way back on January 19th I began a journey. For 100 days, I committed to stitching 15 minutes a day on a 7×5½” piece of fabric… 20-7×5½” pieces of fabric – to be exact.
I was leery of the time constraint … 15 minutes seemed like not enough. I had no idea what I would do. How it would go. But what did I have to lose… 15 minutes a day? Some scraps of fabric? A small investment for a time study.
And so I pulled out a few handfuls of fabric scraps… left over bits… unusable bits. Or so I thought. I am ever so grateful that past me did not just toss these bits!
And over the last 100 days I have discovered that 15 minutes can hold joy. It can help you focus! It can help you discover new ideas… in places you never imagined! Time helped me release every preconceived notion of what I thought… and showed me what could happen when you intentionally let those 15 minutes be all. And those 15 minutes each day… well they were so full! And in those 15 minutes I found an authenticity that I did not know I had… a creativity… a delight in not knowing what was next.
It has been the best use of 15 minutes ever… on any day!
I have “done” 100 day projects before but not one of those had the impact that this project has had for me. If you asked me before January 19th what 15 minutes could hold… I would have said not much. Now today… I can tell you that 15 minutes can be everything!
I don’t love every page… but I learned from them. I stopped “trying” and began just doing… and in that doing I found that those 15 minutes of time was perfect… the most creative minutes of the day. I spent just 15 minutes doing the actual stitching, but as I discovered that creative spark… I spent more time letting ideas simmer. And the ideas just kept coming… it was just so amazing!!
But on April 27 when I put the last stitches on that final page… my heart ached and I shed a few tears. I was not ready to “be done” at all. 100 days and I really felt like I was just beginning! I did not want to lose all that I had discovered. I really did not want to lose my creative momentum… and what stepped into the stitching space was a surprising delight!
On vacation I opened a small art journal I picked up and continued the 15 minute habit with pencil, pen, and sometimes water color paints. Who knew that I would ever consider 15 minutes to be the best minutes of any day… but friends, they are the most magical minutes of all!
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How it started… the view from the kitchen window in our Airbnb.
And the apple tree blooming in the back yard.
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And the start of one of our favorite paths at Presque Isle. (Excellent for bird watching!)
I am simply loving time this year… it was a brilliant word and I had no idea where it would take me!
I am late to join Carolyn’s link up… but sometimes vacation should just be vacation! (And vacation time… well, it is best if it is uninterrupted!)
See you all back here tomorrow with some Unraveling!
by Kat | Mar 25, 2024 | General, Words
This month I have been spending much of my time contemplating the idea of “deep time” or perhaps the concept is better explained as circles of time. The idea, at least to me, seems a bit like the ripples created when you drop pebbles in a pool of water. The water ripples out further and further…and that place where those ripples interconnect… well, that is where time for me has gotten very interesting!
Rilke, of course, has give me some incredible inspiration… dear, dear Rilke.
Widening Circles
by Rainer Maria Rikle
I live my life in widening circles
that reach out across the world
I may not complete this last one
but I give myself to it.
I circle around God, around the primordial tower.
I’ve been circling for thousands of years
and I still don’t know: am I a falcon,
a storm, or a great song?
Published in Rilke’s Book of Hours: Love Poems to God. Translated by Anita Barrows and Joanna Macy. (You can listen to Joanna read it here. Her voice and these words…perfection!)
And so I have been thinking about the circles of time in my life this month. I brought Andri Snær Magnason along with me as I have been reading his brilliant work, On Time and Water. He has provided volumes to think about in this small yet weighty book! I have been slowly savoring it. I have kept going back and rereading parts as I contemplate his thoughts and the circles of my life and the depths of time. As I ponder my circles, my children’s circles, my grandchildren’s and their children and grandchildren’s circles… will they have any time at all? All these thoughts on circles of time has made me think about how interconnected I am to the past, the present, and yes… especially to the future, because things I do today will absolutely send out a ripple.
I “give myself” gladly to the circle I am in… and whether I complete this circle or not, it will interconnect with another circle and so on and so on… for thousands of years. And I think that just might be the great song of my life.
And time is like an image painted half by water —— and half of it by me. — Steinn Steinarr
I would like to thank Carolyn for keeping a space for us to share our thoughts, our progress, our struggles, our hopes!
See you all back here on Wednesday.
Photo by Jakub Novacek
