Beyond our Reach

“Where did the years go?”, I constantly ask myself.

I feel like yesterday I was in college. For some reason college feels like yesterday and high school feels like a lifetime ago. I’m not sure why it feels that way, but it’s undeniable.

I can’t figure out time. It’s too complex, too stubborn, and beyond our reach. The whole Butterfly Effect is interesting, but any story that has ever attempted time travel has failed, although I could watch Back to the Future again and again. I think we long for time travel with the reason being, so we can change decisions in our past that didn’t go the way we would have hoped. I’m saying most people, if not everyone, feels this way whether they admit it or not.

So, back to my original question of, “Where did the years go?” Well, you could say they were just lost, e.g. someone’s mind was focused elsewhere. Maybe time ate the years. *shrug* Time never stops, so surely it’s hungry. I don’t really know.

I can’t figure out time. It’s too complex, too stubborn, and beyond our reach.

I’ve time traveled in my dreams before. It was extremely cold and eerie and I woke feeling very insecure and exhausted. If we ever achieve time travel, it’s probably going to be mentally exhausting if not fatal. It’s just fiction at this point, but thinking deeply about it exercises our minds.

Anyway, you can actually slow time down by focusing more on the here and now, which can be difficult for many of us (myself included), but it’s important nonetheless.

Seriously though, get off the phones and pay attention to your kids and/or your spouse. That’s what we’re constantly reminded of anyway, right? That’s what I’m reminded of. When my mind wanders, the time seems to magically disappear and I come back to the present feeling a bit regretful that I wasn’t here when I should have been. You may not work that way. We are all different. Some of you know exactly what I’m talking about though.

Anyway, practice being there mentally. You won’t notice the years pass, but you might notice the hours in a more memorable way.