Next year, by this time, we may be there, I may have a job, I will have paid back the loan, and we should have a house. My medications may be over and I may be well again. See, we are already in the future. There is an investment of time. This investment involves hopes, dreams, fears, anxieties, and disappointment. Among these moments, some are opening to further events. All of them have something to fill into our life. As the title of J.T. Fraser’s book stands, Time is The Familiar Stranger. Are we running behind an arrow of time, are we being carried on a wheel of time? Or are we creators of time?
Time is unprompted. If we reflect on
the spontaneity of time through the thoughts of Henri Bergson’s philosophy, the
nature of time is ‘duration.’ Duration is not a measured sum of time stretched
out between certain ends. Time is not a series of quantifiable moments ordered
in a line; rather, it is a living, flowing entity that we experience only
intuitively. Time is lived qualitative inner subjective experience.
Time is ever same, and every day is
yet another day. It is true. But we experience passages of life; passages of
day and night, birth and death and so on. So, passages invite us to newness,
not because we may be wrong somehow, but to move into a qualitative human
living. Understanding time as a living entity we can cherish the spontaneous
nature of our experiences. Each moment of our lives, no matter how ordinary and
familiar, carries its own depth and significance. There is beauty in it. What
may come is not known. It permits us to flow with time, finding meaning in the
unpredictability and chaos of life. It
encourages us to liberate ourselves from a rigid grasp of time.
Even many spiritual traditions confine
time within a horizontal-linear framework. Our craze for the predictability of
reality makes time so determined that even God cannot escape from human
predictable outcomes. There is sin and punishment, blessing and prosperity,
morality, error, and righteousness, all in one line with their causes and
effects. These impose limitations on the richness of time. This reductionist view strips away the
dynamic and spontaneous essence of time. They overlook the complex and creative
interplay of moments that constitute our lived experience. They may fixate on
goals and endpoints, neglecting the significance of the journey itself, with
all its nuances and spontaneity.
Often, we value time according to
its utility toward a predetermined outcome. What is the use of ‘wasting’ time
like this? Here time has become transactional. There we miss the inherent
beauty of spontaneous existence; the joys, uncertainties, and unforeseen
encounters. It is in the appreciation of
simply ‘being,’ presencing that we can be in the fluidity of time. Michael Ende,
in his novel Momo, introduces time as a flower blooming from our hearts. It
gradually unfolds. Time is an ever-unfolding tapestry, where each moment is
interwoven with the past and the future, creating a rich tapestry of experience
that defies any form of calculated and quantified form of time. Time is what we
have outpoured for others. We cannot measure it, it can be known only by
intuition.
We must begin with courage and hope;
we must end certain stories; there are changes inevitable in our lives; there
are doorways or passages we have to pass through. There is something sacred
about it. These moments are not the same as other moments. The Roman god Janus,
god of seasons, time and change, is often depicted with two faces looking into past
and future. While we dwell in the present, it is an active blend of all our experiences
shaped by our history and aspirations. Though time is seen as abstract, the
lived time is complex and layered, demanding a deeper reflection on how we picture
our existence within it.
Taking the spontaneity of time leads
us to a celebration of life in its most authentic form. There we stand with the
unfolding freedom of our hearts. Embracing such a view enriches our
understanding of our existence; and fosters a more profound connection with the
divine tapestry of which we are all a part. This tapestry of grace carries our
events most beautifully, and fully immerse ourselves in the beauty of the now,
experiencing it as a sacred and spontaneous gift. The beginnings and the end
mark gateways archways, and thresholds that lead us to peace. If there is no
peace, there is no grace of time. Time is born of Terra and Caelus, the Earth
and the Sky. Peace, grace, and beauty of time unfold as we have a harmonious
living with the earth and the sky.
Time is a familiar stranger, but
time has a name, Logos, the Word, the beginning and the end, the origin and
purpose of all things. Logos is the passage through which all pass, the
threshold at which everyone must make a transitional choice for peace, harmony,
beauty and goodness. In Logos, every being unfolds and finds one’s truth. In
logos one reveals and opens a petal of time. As the Word unfolds, so too does time.
