Time

How do I make the moment count

There is an expression attributed to the late 19th century, early 20th century Russian revolutionary Vladimir Lenin, and reasonably so given his history¹

There are decades,

where nothing happens.

And there are weeks,

where decades happen.

I adore this expression. It is so elegantly simple, yet encapsulates much of the experience of life.

There are huge swaths of the universe where time completely dilates because of the intensity of a nearby mass. Einstein’s Special and General Theory of Relativity explains this to us, and it has been observed by astronomers, yet in the every day experience of life and the small distances (relatively speaking) we engage with on planet Earth, time seems to move quite linearly. Except in our minds, it certainly does not. Nor does it in the evolution of mankind or the influence we have on the planet itself.

Here, the turbulent disk of gas churning around a black hole takes on a bizarre double-humped appearance. The black hole’s extreme gravity alters the paths of light coming from different parts of the disk, producing the warped image where time itself is dilated in its relation to space. Massive celestial bodies such as these cause spacetime to be significantly curved. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Jeremy Schnittman

Time and its counterpart, energy, express themselves in decidedly non-linear ways.

This brings up a wide assortment of conceptualisations in my mind. From the interplay of relativistic physics and quantum mechanics and the mind’s yet unsolved involvement in this. To some more down to earth, human ways.

What I do when no one is watching. And what I do when everyone is watching. Matters.

What I think and do when I can only see the dark of a never-ending tunnel. And what I think and do when the lights shine brightly on the world around me. Both matter.

How I treat the people whom I deem can be of no benefit to me. And how I treat the people who I believe to be able to change my life. All matter.

How I conduct myself in the face of everything going devastatingly wrong, apparent or real. And how I conduct myself in the glory of everything going my way. And everything in between. They all matter.

Who am I really, but not the human that is able to make the decades count, just as much as the weeks where the heavens align and shine down upon my life. Waiting for the moments only when it is right to wait; while more often than not, I am the one with the opportunity and responsibility to mould the decades into weeks, the weeks into days. In my relationships, in my contribution to society, in my experience of life. I am the one with the capacity to contract my experience of time by the energy I generate and energy I move with intention, gratitude, elegance, focus and force of will.

Just as time slows down when the universe’s spacetime approaches the gravitational intensity of a galaxial cluster or black hole. Just as time evaporates when I am in the present moment with my beloved. Can I live with this presence in my mind and my life, for a lifetime?

1. Though it was apparently first attributed to him by a British member of parliament in 2001… so unconfirmed, and perhaps even unlikely.