Tag Archives: time
The opposite of availability
“The opposite of availability is not unavailability, but an overcrowded heart.” — Sue Monk Kidd Did any of you wince inwardly on reading these words? I know I did. It’s the sort of observation we know to be true even as we wish it wasn’t. So many of us have a hard time saying “no” to new …
Altered with every experience
“It was Heraclitus, of course, who came up with the formulation that we are never able to step into the same river twice…The obverse of Heraclitus’s maxim may be that one is never able to step out of the river the same, twice. A neuron in the brain is altered with every experience.” – …
In the slanted light
All the feathery grasses shine in the slanted light. It’s time to bring in the lawn chairs and wind chimes, time to draw the drapes against the wind, time to hunker down. Summer’s fruits are preserved in syrup, but nothing can stopper time. — from the poem “And Now it’s October” by Barbara Crooker Just when we …
A pathological nostalgia
“I had a pathological nostalgia. I grieved not only for my own rapidly receding childhood but also for the years, ‘the pasts,’ that I would never experience. The past seemed as real to me as the present, as real as another country. But unlike another country, its borders were closed…pictures felt like the next best …
After all
Though we know everything is bounded by time, there is, after all, baseball, in which time has its function, but does not rule. — from the poem “National Pastime“ by Bill Mayer Break free of time today, or sometime soon, even if only for a few minutes. A baseball park is an ideal place to do …
Changing so fast
“Things are changing so fast that what we once called ‘science fiction’ we now call ‘current events.’ “ — Ashleigh Brilliant Ashleigh penned that thought in the late 60’s, before humans ever walked on the moon. Yet now his words are more true than ever, which paradoxically demonstrates that the more things change, the more they stay the …
Sweet remembrancers
…Thus in each flower and simple bell, That in our path untrodden lie, Are sweet remembrancers who tell How fast the winged moments fly. Time will steal on with ceaseless pace, Yet lose we not the fleeting hours, Who still their fairy footsteps trace, As light they dance among the flowers. — Charlotte Turner Smith …
This twenty minutes
Sit, drink your coffee here; your work can wait awhile. You’re twenty-six, and still have some life ahead. No need for wit; just talk vacuities, and I’ll Reciprocate in kind, or laugh at you instead. The world is too opaque, distressing and profound. This twenty minutes’ rendezvous will make my day: To sit here in …
Like a hand waving
“Time was passing like a hand waving from a train that I wanted to be on.” — Jonathan Safran Foer This has to be one of the most evocative analogies I’ve ever known. It captures perfectly the wistful experience of watching years roll away, just far enough from us to be out of reach. It …
Along the road
“I regret less the road not taken than my all-fired hurry along the road I took.” — Robert Brault As hard as it might be for some of us to believe this, if we live long enough we will look back on this particular time in our lives and miss at least a few of …
Constantly and visibly
“Life, now, was unfolding before me, constantly and visibly, like the flowers of summer that drop fanlike petals on eternal soil.” — Roman Payne I don’t know whether it’s because I’m less than three years from 60, or because of the many life-and-death issues my family has faced in the past 18 months, but I …
Hardly a waste
“Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass on a summer day listening to the murmur of water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is hardly a waste of time.” ― Sir John Lubbock Rest is not optional; it’s necessary to health and sanity, but it seems we are in …
The little steps
“Don’t despise the little steps you know you can take every day. There are tiny miracles in each and every one of them.” ― Israelmore Ayivor Do you ever have days when you feel like just giving up? I do. Often. In fact, I’m having one today, which I hope will be far behind me …
The articulate audible voice
“In books lies the soul of the whole Past Time: the articulate audible voice of the Past, when the body and material substance of it has altogether vanished like a dream.” — Thomas Carlyle There’s at least one realm where the past, present and future really do co-exist, and that is in the world of …
The little pictures
“Change enough of the little pictures, and you’ll find you’ve changed the big picture.” — Ashleigh Brilliant For many years — almost since I first discovered Ashleigh’s work in 1990 — I’ve had this quote on my refrigerator door. It reminds me to be patient when results come slowly, and not to feel helpless if …
Long-distance friendships
“There is magic in long-distance friendships. They let you relate to other human beings in a way that goes beyond being physically together and is often more profound.” — widely attributed Diana Cortes, about whom I could find no reliable information One of the silver linings to the sorrow of having to leave friends every …
Until I write
“I cannot see what I have gone through until I write it down. I am blind without a pencil…But it does seem a slow and wasteful process. (Like walking, tapping with a cane.)…There is so much waste in creativity, always. But there is something curious about creativity: the trying-too-hard for results seems to defeat itself.”— …
Distance lends enchantment
‘Tis distance lends enchantment to the view, And robes the mountain in its azure hue. — Thomas Campbell Time and memory don’t always improve the way things seem to us, but often they do. As with the old saying about the weather, if you are unhappy today, wait a while. Although it may be hard …
Nothing is
“Boredom is the feeling that everything is a waste of time; serenity, that nothing is.”— Thomas Szasz I found it interesting that this quote contrasts boredom with serenity. I would not think of the two as opposites. I would tend to think of anxiety as more the opposite of serenity, although boredom undoubtedly makes everything …
Time and culture
“You’ve got to marinate your head, in that time and culture. You’ve got to become them.” ― David McCullough I think one of the best and quickest ways to defeat despair is to read a bit of history and contemplate what life used to be like. I’ve found that nonfiction often seems best for this, …
So late so soon
“How did it get so late so soon? It’s night before it’s afternoon. December is here before it’s June. My goodness how the time has flewn. How did it get so late so soon?” ― Dr. Seuss My sister Carla has been teaching children for nearly 40 years, and she shares my love for Dr. …
Let us love
“Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.” — John, apostle of Jesus (I John 4:7-8, NIV) In a chapter that opens with ominous warnings about false teachers, John …
Defeat Despair 