104 – Time v2

Time is a large enough topic that when I initially wrote, I discovered that the topic deserved at least two walks. Here’s the first one.

Click the video above for 2 minutes of background waves while reading.

I like walking on the beach. It’s good for the mind, body, and soul – and refreshing on my feet. 

An earlier walk featured time, but time is so complex and demanding, it requires multiple walks. After all, everything has time.

Time is a measurement broken down into seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years, decades, centuries, millennia, and more. Time can also be an instant, moment, shake, jiffy, season, age, epoch, era, and eon. Yet somehow, Jim Croce stuffed all that into a bottle.

Photo by Ron Lach on Pexels.com

Time is indicated by a calendar, watch, clock, sundial, stopwatch, hourglass, timepiece, tick-tock, Big Ben, pendulum, chronometer, bell, whistle, alarm, and time zones; plus standard and daylight savings time, universal time, and analog and digital devices. 

Time can be infinite or finite, appointed, fixed, or a moment for something to happen.  Time also measures actions, processes, and existing conditions. 

Time is a label of different moments, but time only travels in one direction – forward, which is a one-way street.

Philosophers seek to understand time – but to physicists, time is not absolute – it’s flexible, relative, and connected to space. With time as the past, present, and future, is the present a brief illusion that quickly becomes the recognizable past?

Lagoon Nebula by Hubble Telescope – Credit to NASA, ESA, and STScI

Stephen Hawking explained how he unwound time to the beginning of time, something that most of us have a difficult time understanding. But did time exist before the Big Bang? My brain is starting to hurt – but in time, that will get better.

Time – the fourth dimension – the dimension that includes the concept of alternative/parallel universes – a thought that is difficult to comprehend, but many quantum physicists would be willing to explain it to those who want to know. 

Time allows each of us to gradually grow – most of the time in ways we hardly notice. Changes from the first day in high school to graduation day – yet time seems seamless. Humans can see the past while in the present and think about the future. Therefore, our sense of time changes who we are, plus our when and where.

Time, when we were young, is different than when we are older. The young lack the perception of time, so an hour seems like an eternity because the young are waiting and anticipating something. As we accept responsibility, time serves as deadlines, so time seems rushed. But time, for all ages clicks at the same rate because time is an eternal constant.

Photo by Dobromir Dobrev on Pexels.com

Time is powerful as it changes personalities, perspectives, and values. Time involves shifts and perceptions – a time for being as opposed to being on time.

Time says that we can’t make new old friends because old friends go way back in time – however, time allows us to discover new friends – but we cannot have new old friends. Time is also a moment when staring at a friend with a tear in your eye.

Everything has time, but we need time to think, sleep, eat, work, exercise, and be alone. 

Time – that label we place on different moments – yet, we stare into the night to see the light from stars that are actually from the past, not the present. Hmmm …. seeing the past while in our present is an interesting thought.

Time doesn’t wait because it passes like a bus that doesn’t stop. Time moves on, but people can call a timeout to stop one aspect of time while real-time continues.

Time is also much more. Time is a work requirement measuring a series of repeated actions – also when something is in use. Time includes a person’s time on task, even a prison sentence or military service.

Photo by Anne McCarthy on Pexels.com

Time can be good, bad, hard, high, on, or off. There’s no time, before my time, present time, past time, the right time, and a matter of time – let alone anytime, sometimes, every time, meantime, mealtime, noontime, dinnertime, suppertime, wartime, peacetime, daytime, teatime, naptime, nighttime, and more. Does anyone know what time it is?

We had a devil of a time making up for the last time we got done in the nick of time – but that won’t happen next time because we will do it ahead of time. However, let us not forget that time flies like an arrow, but fruit flies like a banana.

I look across the sea to the horizon – that fine line where the sky meets the water. The horizon is like the fine line between today and tomorrow – between the past and the future. Maybe it’s time to end these thoughts about time – so next time will be a different topic – but only time will tell for sure if that is true.

Now that’s timely because I like walking on the beach. After all, it is good for the mind, body, and soul – and refreshing on my feet.

See what other bloggers have posted about Time

• Signs of the Times (photos)
• Criss-Crossing in Deep Time (poem by a visitor here)
• Sonnet 73 That Time of Year with William Shakespeare (written and audio)
• Winter Time (poem)
• I Held Time Today (poem)
• Frozen in Time (poem by a visitor here)

Next Post: Fire – Saturday 15th January @ 1 AM (Eastern US)