Musings

Catching Time

Sanjida Khan

What is the nature of temporal passage--the movement of events or moments of time from the future through the present into the past? Are the future and the past as real as the present, or is the presentor perhaps the present and the past--all that exists? Is it possible to travel through time into distant regions of the future or the past? What accounts for the direction of time, the sense we have that we are moving toward the future and not back into the past?

Many say, “Time is a circus always packing up and moving away.” Hence time is to be treated as a precious commodity. Time is free, but it's priceless. You can't own it, but you can use it. You can't keep it, but you can spend it. Once you've lost it you can never get it back. It's as important as life itself. What is life? Is it a mere breathing exercise? How do we define time? We often refer to the term 'lifetime'. What makes a life is not the whole life at one go. Rather it consists of moments stitched together. We should live life in parts. Live a whole lifetime in a whole day. Live as if there's no tomorrow. This doesn't mean being rash. But start enjoying your life; you never will be able to realise when times change. You never can judge what time has in store for you. Being alive and living is a totally different thing. If you go to accumulating wealth hoping that you'll indulge yourself, do something for your family and enjoy life one day, you are grossly mistaken. When a man dies he will never wish he had spent some more time in the office. As we say, 'opportunity is here', similarly, 'time is here and now'. Time should never be wasted. What is time? It is a secret lacking in substance and yet almighty.

No matter how many pains you take, you cannot use the 'undo' command in life and edit again. Hitler had dreamed of ruling over the whole world, but his progress was checked very soon and had to commit suicide in the end-an example of human failure in front of the divine power of time. We have to move ahead with the time to conquer it. Generally what we do is that we move where life takes us. Thus, we allow to be driven by time, and to dominate us. If we stand still we will reach nowhere and time won't stop for us, to take us along. Indeed, 'men may come and men may go' but time stays on just like 'the brook'. But, again just as water is never the same in a flowing river, time too never repeats itself.

Time once past cannot be recalled. It is what we want most, but what we use worst.

Time is the most indefinable yet paradoxical of things. The past is gone, the future has not come, and the present becomes the past even while we attempt to define it, and, like the flash of lightning, at once exists and expires. You wink an eye and the moment is past. You will never find back the time wasted by you, there will only be tales of past. Time is an equal opportunity employer. Each human being has exactly the same number of hours and minutes every day. Rich people can't buy more hours. Scientists can't invent new minutes. And you can't save time to spend it on another day. Even so, time is amazingly fair and forgiving. No matter how much time you've wasted in the past, you still have an entire tomorrow. Events in our lives happen in a sequence in time, but in their significance to us they find their own order the continuous thread of revelation.

'There's many a slip between the cup and the lip'. It is only in the present that the essence of life is contained. We cannot depend on either the past or future, which is not in front of us. Live life as it unfolds itself before us, that is, in the form of present.

Time doesn't give you chances. There are no retakes in real life. Time teaches you with experience but it has been called the cruelest teacher. Why? Because it never waits and you can't change your actions later. Time doesn't come to a standstill. People lose their loved ones. Their lives are shattered by the death. Life doesn't seem to be moving ahead. But things change because time doesn't wait for the mourner to get back to life again. Time is a great healer too. Indeed, time is the stream of life. Just like the bubbles some people fade away, some new ones take their place and the process goes on. 'There is a time and place for everything'. So when opportunity knocks at your door don't turn around. Grab the offer with both hands. Act spontaneously. The moment you act will be the right time. You never know when the time runs out or the tide turns unfavorable. Time is like the sand fast pouring out of your hands. It is just like the onion being layer after layer and in the end you find there's nothing remaining in it. It's now or never.

The clock is running, make the most of today! Treasure every moment you have, and remember time waits for no one. “Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, and today is a gift. This is why it is called the present.” God gave you a gift of 86,400 seconds today. Have you used one to say 'thank you?'

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