Stop by Patheos for my latest reflection:
Time is the measure of things that come to an end, but where time itself ends, eternity begins . . . In the end, there is no end. The ends of time are near the roots of eternity, and the ends of the Earth touch on the other world or the world behind the world.
–Michael Meade
I was driving to my yoga class this morning but there was some kind of race blocking all of the cross streets I usually travel. I finally found my way around but at that point I was close to being late and so started to feel a bit agitated with stoplights and slow drivers in front of me. I could hear the voices start in my mind, “hurry up, if you don’t get there early . . .” “What?” I interrupted myself. “I won’t get my favorite spot in the room? They’ll lock the door when class begins and I won’t get in?” While those both may be true the irony of my rushing impatiently to yoga class sank in and I took a deep breath and let the spaciousness of the moment fill me. Worrying wasn’t going to get me to class any faster, in fact I would be more likely to get into an accident.
I would like to say that this kind of scene plays itself out very rarely in my life, but if I said that I would be trying to convince you that I am not susceptible to being very human. The same thing happens when I have too many deadlines and I feel the pressure of too many things to do in too little time. And while I find myself caught in the inner dialogue about time often, I have become more adept at catching myself in these moments.
How many of us wish there were more hours in the day to get things done? As if twenty-six hour days would somehow solve our problems with feeling so rushed and busy all the time. We think that by hurrying we will somehow catch up, but that is the great illusion.