The Passing Of Time

While I was walking into the office this morning I was happy and a little surprised that it’s already Friday. I have always heard, and it’s been my experience, that the older you get the faster time seems to go. Weekends, holidays, and vacations always seem to fly by regardless of your age. When I was younger the work week seemed like it would never end. Now even the workdays go by very fast for me. Yes, I drag into the office on Monday mornings like everyone else but the next thing I know it’s already Friday. We all know that time goes by at the same pace every day. There’s sixty minutes in an hour, twenty four hours in a day, and seven days in a week. Regardless of our moods and feelings, this never changes. However, the perception of time can be quite different. Albert Einstein has a theory of relativity that talks about time and our perception of it. As an example he compares a lover’s kiss to the experience of sitting on a hot stove. If you did both for one minute, which one would seem the longest? When I was a boy, a summer day seemed to last forever. School vacations seemed endless. Now it sometimes seems that if I blink ten years has gone by. I felt young for a very long time in my life and now I suddenly find myself on the brink of being a senior citizen. I still remember my first day of work at my current employer and now twenty six years have passed. The cure for slowing life down is mindfulness. If you can train yourself to be aware of each moment as it unfolds, you will gain a new sense of the passing of time. When you are mindful, and in the moment, you will find that the moment will be eternal and time will not pass by you un-noticed.