Simply Being | Simple Being

Tag: time (page 1 of 1)

This Time Tomorrow

I just read this book that was about time travel but then it was also a book about aging, caring for a dying parent who was young, vibrant, filled with joy, oozing creativity, and then this endless, repetitive effort to go back in time and tell that person, don’t smoke! Eat healthy! Don’t eat meat! Please go jogging… and so on, all in the hopes of averting a future in hospice, and yet the woman at the center of all this sees so clearly that Time Does Not Miss, and she took one winding path after another, going to sleep each night at the same spot, and waking up elsewhere each time, and yet all paths led to the hospital, hospice care—no smoking, be damned. And this makes me all wonder about time, and whoever said that it’s an arrow—do we need clarification—because an arrow has direction, right? And in this story, so you’d think, and yet I am reminded also of something someone said about directionless time, and yes, all this likely comes across as gibberish, or newbie fan gibberish, coming from someone who’s read about time travel for the first time, hehe… but make no mistake about it, for I Have Spent A Lot Of Time thinking about Time, and it’s probably funny… for, didn’t someone say that they contemplated the nature of reality only to realize that it didn’t exist? If all this science fiction-time-reality talk feels terribly weird as it emerges from the mind of this 44-year-old (really, now?), make no mistake, yet again… for this 44-year-old is herself stuck in the strangest of time warps, and ALL of it is her own creation, a web she spun herself, for the love and fun and joy of it all.

(Thank you for reading.)

Space and Time

Most comfortable chairs ever

Most comfortable chairs ever

This evening I came home and made myself a cup of tea. Pulled out an oft-read beloved book (“The Sunday Philosophy Club” by Alexander McCall Smith) and reclined comfortably in one of the two blue-grey chairs by the window. It was a quiet evening. No kids playing out or cars driving by or birds chirping. I sipped my tea and read for a while.

After a few minutes, the peace stealing through my soul felt so urgent, almost compelling. I had to lay my book aside and reflect a little.

A year or so ago, my life began to change. Objects and activities started exiting out of my life, literally and metaphorically. Clothes, music, furniture, books, knick-knacks, hair, interests, people… I bade farewell to all of them. It was an exodus of sorts. I felt that I was creating space. For what? I had no idea. But the decluttering motion had its own energy, rhythm and momentum. I simply followed along.

I discovered the joy of space and time, all to myself. And this space in my house, my head and my life feels so vital, so life-giving… that I wonder if, at a sub-conscious level, I even chose to remain childless because of my intense love for this space and time.

I am, what many term, a “spacey” personality. Previously, I chafed at that description but its meaning is simple. My Ayurvedic constitution is an Air-Space combination. Why resist it? After all, it connotes expansiveness, unboundedness, freedom. As long as I am able to find my grounding and center, it is bliss.

A Patch of Blue Sky, An Open Clearing

Ganesha TreeFor the longest time, I have been lucky enough that I get to find my own little patch of blue sky. Amid the tallest buildings, walls behind walls, work piling up and things to do… yet I manage to find my little space up above, the one that gives me air to breathe, keeps me alive… As I wonder about the where-what-how questions that haunted me in my younger days.

Today, I have that little patch of blue sky but the imagery has expanded to include a tiny clearing in the woods. It is always present, waiting and undisturbed. No one strays there. It is my space alone.