Present Time is a Great Place to Begin

“The beginning is the most important part of any work”

Plato

There are many reasons why I am preparing to explore the concept of time but the short answer is because it has always fascinated me. Time is everywhere and nowhere. In many ways it can be compared to an itch you can’t quite reach.

There are. apparently,  at least 1567 synonyms and 177 antonyms for the word time. www.powerthesaurus.org . Time  exists as the past, present and future. “Time has been called an illusion, a dimension, a smooth flowing continuum and an expression of separation among events that occur in the same physical location” and it has also been described as “… a practical convenience in modern life”.

Brainy Quotes www.brainyquote.com  offered these quotations for consideration: “The two most powerful warriors are patience and time” (Leo Tolstoy) and “Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.” (Thomas A Edison) 

Not to be outdone, Goodreads  www.goodreads.com offered two additional time quotations: “Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today. Let us begin.” (Mother Teresa) and “They say I’m old-fashioned and live in the past but sometimes I think progress progresses too fast.” (Dr. Seuss)

A visit to www.whatis.techtarget.com  startled me. I discovered that this site lays claim to an unbelievable 3,127 different tech results which include the word time. Examples included access time, talk time, cycle time, face time and time management on just the first page!  

Time is spring flowers and snow blown drifts separated by only days and weeks.

Cyclical  time and  mind time enable us to visualize our planet earth as a space ship annually and eternally circling  our sun in a precise, measurable pattern.

Our daily perception of time exists in clearly defined units such as seconds, minutes, days, weeks, months and years. The time expressed in the word ‘eon’ on the other hand has an indefinite meaning and a vague period of time.

We casually speak of great achievements such as man reaching for the stars where the time required for the journey to a new home is measured in light years. A light year is a unit of astronomical distance equivalent to the distance that light travels in one year. Remember light travels at roughly 186,282 miles per second.

Time is present in the awe we feel when we are actually able to see and read a message which has been written on the back wall of a tunnel carved by people of an ancient culture who knew and understood the concept of a solar equinox.

Time can be viewed in the accumulated layers of stuff from past civilizations which is revealed in an archeological dig. Each newly revealed layer gradually carries us back to the observable and imagined time and events for that site.

Time leaves the story of growth cycles easily seen, read and understood in the rings in the cross cut section of an oak.

Time can be seen on the face and heard in the voice of a Grandfather clock.

Time can even be illustrated through the written music and the lyrics from stage plays like Fiddler on the Roof. “Sunrise, sunset. Sunrise, sunset. Swiftly fly the years. One season following another, laden with happiness and tears”. Can you hear or feel the time of the music from this play?

The common hourglass presents the passage of time as something simple in concept, clearly visible and, importantly,easy to reset. In its simplicity, the hourglass is a wonderful visual example of time in motion. The top portion of the glass container represents the future. The pinched middle portion is the present and the bottom is the past. Standing in the middle of the hourglass we see the time above and experience time as something yet to come and the bottom portion represents everything that was.

Pause here for a moment and consider another perception of the movement of time. Our Caravan, this blog site, attempts to provide a different view of the passing of time.

The caravan traveler remains in the middle of the cycle and gazes forward toward the past. Future experiences remain behind and are yet to come. The difference between the two is subtle but it can be seen and it can be explored. I strongly believe our understanding of the past enables us to repeat positive outcomes with certainty and teach us what we should not repeat again. Now compare this simplicity to the complexity of quantum physics or an expanding universe.

During a recent conversation with my daughter, I clearly heard and recognized a long list of time concepts I want and need to explore. Christianity, for example, presents a wonderful combination of circular and linear time. Consider this: Christ was born. He died. It is promised that he will return. This is linear time. “The liturgical year, also known as the church year or Christian year,  consists of the cycle of liturgical seasons in Christian churches that determines when feast days, including celebrations of saints, are to be observed, and which portions of Scripture are to be read  in an annual cycle ...(circular time)”

Time is used and understood differently by people celebrating different faiths and cultures. Those differences reveal a completely different story when examined through the lens of the differing perspectives.

She talked of Periodic Cyclical time in Hinduism, reminded me of the Mayan time expressed and explored in 2012, spoke of cultural time, China and time, suggested an exploration of Japanese Buddhism and asked me to consider humans as meaning makers.

 She also encouraged me to explore Developmental time and discover Spiral time and even reminded me of mind time as seen in fishing time compared to waiting time in an emergency room. I smile when I remember that quite a few fishermen have made trips to various emergency rooms to get fish hooks and lures removed from their ears.

Please excuse me. A pun has asked to join my written thoughts. From time to time I will intentionally share a book title and perhaps a wee bit of the book itself.  I have already read some of the books I will mention and I hope you will come to enjoy them as much as I have.  I will probably also share some additional unread books which are silently waiting to speak.

I am now ready to begin a great personal Walkabout. By definition, a Walkabout historically refers to a rite of passage during which Indigenous male Australians would undergo a journey during adolescence, typically ages 10 to 16, and live in the wilderness for a period as long as six months to make the spiritual and traditional transition into manhood. I missed such a journey in my youth but I suspect it is never too late to begin and so I will. There is no real predetermined design. The essays will come in no specific order and there is no planned timeline or deadline. I invite you to come along with me. We both have much to see and learn.