Treasuring Time

This week, after a lunch meeting at Whistlestop Café, I had some time before I had some duties at church.  As I took the time to leisurely stroll downtown Columbus, I thought about how I would have once described this activity as “killing time” or “wasting time,” phrases I intend never to use again.  I treasured that bit of time, with no expectation except to enjoy it.

As I age, I appreciate time in a way I never did before.  This is both asset and liability as I currently experience it.  I am more likely to allow myself to simply sit reading or thinking about nothing in particular or watching the photos scroll through my Skylight.  Yet I can veer to a sense of “time urgency” in which I make myself anxious about how much I want to accomplish and how my allotted years are much nearer the end than the beginning. 

In a Psychology Today article* I came across, the author notes that this sense of urgency about time is a uniquely modern concern.  Until the installing of medieval clocktowers, people never really knew what time it was. There was a lot of variation in how each community designated time, which eventually created problems when railways came into being and a predictable schedule became important. Thus, the British began the use of Greenwich Mean time in 1847, referred to as “railway time.” Later, the United States adopted a similar plan. With the advent of industrialization, factories needed folks to get to work on time and to work productively during the hours of their shift.  Over time, one constraint has piled on another, setting the stage for “time urgency.”

Perhaps the challenge for me, maybe for others, too, is to focus on the gift of time I am allowed.  By that approach, I am not driven; but I value each moment, treasuring it in such a way that whether working to achieve a goal, or simply enjoying the pleasure of a quiet moment, I am immersed in the awareness of the present. 

May we be bearers of hope, the “wait staff” of Hope’s Café for each other and all those we encounter.  Shalom, Kate

Hope’s Café Bonus:  “Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. But today is a gift. That’s why it’s called the present.”—quote has been attributed to multiple people. 

*Refer to: Psychology Today article February 17,2021, “Time Urgency and the Pace of Life.”