“The bad news is time flies. The good news is you’re the pilot. -Michael Altshuler
I’m a clock watcher. This is a natural consequence of having been a teacher. I can think of few other professions where a minute here or there makes a difference. Take your kids to the music class five minutes late and you’re done. Lesson finished three minutes before recess? Better have a ‘time filler’ or two up your sleeve.
The habit of clock watching followed me into retirement. I have a digital clock in my writing/sewing studio. Many days, I’m not on any particular schedule, and if I’m involved in a project I lose track of time. Yet, for the most part, knowing where I am in time and space seems to ground me.
“Time moves slowly, but passes quickly,” -Alice Walker, The Color Purple
This week, the numbers on the clock in my writing studio began to fade . Once Ed replaced the battery, the clock had to be reset. Ed was able to figure out how to do the minutes, seconds, and date, but neither of us could figure out how to set the day of the week. A small thing perhaps, yet I knew this would drive me crazy. If, for instance it was Friday,August 25 but my clock said August 25 was Tuesday, I would maybe start to obsess about it and then I wouldn’t get any writing done and then my time would be wasted and then I would worry that I’d wasted my time.
After much fiddling around, I discovered that one must set the year (which isn’t displayed) in order for the clock to align the current date with the correct day or the week. To my surprise, the date had been set for 2018, the year I had purchased the clock. It had been marking my minutes, days and years for five years. This was a revealation to me. Five years. That’s 1,825 days or 43,800 hours, or 2,628,000 minutes. Where did they go?
“There’s only one thing more precious than time and that’s who you spend it on.”- Leo Christopher
I’ve been thinking about the passage of time this week as I approach my birthday. Yeah, it’s one of those with a zero attached to it. I’ve never been one to let chronological age define me, yet this one seems monumental. But now, I’m thinking (because my mind works this way) maybe I’ll just put in a new battery, a new outlook, reset myself, and continue on- renewed and refreshed and ready for whatever comes next. One of my favorite lines comes from a scene in The Best Exotic Marygold Hotel where Judi Dench says as she contemplates starting a late-in -life career , “How many lives can one have? As many as one chooses.” To put it another way:
“Is it possible for you to contemplate that in a very real way this may actually be the best season, the best moment of your life?”-Jon Kabat-Zinn
My best season, my best moment. Now. I think this is my favorite way to look at time.
(PS…Lest you think I’m becoming too philosophical in my new decade, I’ll leave you with this last quote because I think it’s really funny and its almost my birthday, so humor me.)
“Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.”
Threads of Thought
Are you a clock-watcher?
If you had more time, what would you do?
When does time move quickly or slowly for you?
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Teachers are clock watchers. That was a lesson most of my student teachers had to learn. Now, in retirement, it’s a hard habit to break. As I also approach the big _0 birthday I yearn to be more like my husband, relaxed, not stressing over what comes next in the day. In the approaching decade I want to remain active but not overcommitted. I want to have those free days, or even just afternoons, where I can simply be, no restraints on my time. Maybe it can begin with me stopping the annoying habit of constantly checking the clock.
Spoken like a true teacher! I can so relate to your goals for your next decade. Ed is much like your husband, he takes each day in stride. You and I have a lot in common!
I seem to have gone the other way now that I am several years out of the classroom. Some days I have to think hard about what day of the week it is! 😉
I get it!