I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by. Douglas Adams
I've been thinking lately about the nature of time.
Not so much in a scientific manner, more in the way of "Wow!" and "What the heck?" and "I don't understand how this works."
When I arrived home from my Italy trip in October, I took some time to decompress, to wind down and reflect, to rest and get re-accustomed to the heat and humidity that still lingered in San Pancho. Toward the end of that time, inertia set in.
For a moment, nothing happened. Then, after a second or so, nothing continued to happen. Douglas Adams again
I admit to the beginning of boredom, which is not a natural state for me. I noticed it, but did little about it but wait. In retrospect, it was a healthy and necessary period.
Then, all of a sudden, the universe and it's accomplice, Time, flipped a switch. The last eight weeks have been a whirlwind.
Time changes everything except something within us which is always surprised by change. Thomas Hardy
Inside that fifty-six day piece of time, of course, were Thanksgiving and Christmas and New Year's Eve which are time-consuming by their nature, no matter one's intentions. Inside that same piece of time was the conception of an idea, and the manifestation of it, a simple little building on the soccer field transformed by a community. That was consuming, too, of time and energy and thought, yet entirely generative at the same time, pouring fuel on the fire of creativity, propagating love in many directions, saturating that piece of time with an intensity that made time simply not relevant.
Three weeks passed in the blink of an eye.
Time flies when you're having fun. Who Knows
The Sunday before Christmas, my son arrived for a five-night stay. Five nights. Not long enough, says the mind. Yet all that Time allowed us. Ready, set, go. We were up talking four out of the five nights until two or three in the morning. We spent days at the beach, talking more, celebrating an easy Christmas morning, visiting with the people he has come to know here. Playing chess and Mexican train. Being together. When I returned him to the airport so he could go back to work a couple of days after Christmas, I was sad to see him go, to not be able to touch him and look in his eyes. But we both knew we had filled that apparently brief piece of time with intention and what we like to call "catching up", making up for that other time when we are separated. We parted satisfied and re-connected, ready for another period of phone calls and emails, cherishing the face-to-face time until next time.
After he left, I rested briefly. Then came New Year's Eve. After which, I rested briefly. And now again, time compresses and expands with activity.
I got 20 million things to do. Lowell George
During the time it's taken to write this post, I have helped unload and reload my car, preparing for a wonderful event happening tomorrow night in which Craig Downs and I will be showing paintings and photography, respectively, at the home of dear Sarah and Sean. We're expecting a crowd. There is wine to be chilled, food to be prepared, pictures to hang, music to plan, ad infinitum. I'll tell you all about it next time. I chatted with Waldo and Lidia about the weather in New York, which they know more about than I do, and about their children. I prepared a casserole to take to a group of students being tutored by the excellent staff at entreamigos, children who might not otherwise eat much at all were they not fed during their homework hour. I sent out and received several emails, including one reserving tickets for next Saturday night to the first performance of the new San Pancho theater project, La Bodega Teatro.
And now the buzzer on the oven is beeping at me and it's time to deliver the casserole.
So I'm off, riding time like a bronco, enjoying the gallops when they break free, the wading in the quiet pools that time often grants us in between.
Savoring the moments.
Lose not yourself in a far off time, seize the moment that is thine. Frederic Schiller
Language is lovely and words are wonder-full when used by a creative skilled thinker/writer such as you, Candice. xo
Posted by: frannyb | January 10, 2014 at 12:41 PM