Tags
birth, concept, death, Ecclesiates 3, expectations, Father Time, healer, human experience, journey, letting go, mother, purpose, season, time
Time in essence ethereal yet so solid it reigns supreme. It has its own place in its own kingdom and rarely a day passes without mention of the time. Time to go; time to get ready. Time to wake up; time to go to sleep. An expression of impatience: “She’s been with us for almost a year now, it’s time she got used to us”. Thoughts voiced aloud by a mother who didn’t understand her small daughter and thought time was all that was needed to bridge the gap between leaving her child and getting to know her years later. Time the great healer: time has no emotions. It doesn’t know that it has been imbued with healing qualities by mankind and that it sometimes falls short of expectations when it doesn’t deliver.
Time was, when the grass was greener, when men were gentlemen, when times were better, and men treated their women like women should be treated. Time was when children were better behaved. Time: this hazy, glowing picture of perfection. a picture portraying ideals which never really existed. More like a mirage, an oasis contrived by the desperate thirst-filled individual painstakingly making his way to the illusion of water.
Time raised to immortality in Ecclesiastes 3: “To everything there is a season, time for every purpose under heaven”. Time is of the essence it has been said. Time waits for no man, that too we’ve heard. Father Time, a respected figure: but why no “Mother Time”: was there only room for you? Could the two not reign side by side?
Time passes, ride on time, time to let things go, haven’t you noticed the time? Time goes so slowly. Time can do so much. So much responsibility has been attributed to this word used almost daily, sometimes casually without much thought and at other times with such reverence that it is a wonder how it encapsulates so much of the human experience from birth to death.
A timely post you might ask? Only time will tell …
~ MEW
ComeFlywithme 
Elegant, playful, and profound. A lovely illustration of spoken word poetry. Even personal and poignant, speaking of a mother and her small daughter. Time is the element with which we mortals are fated to wrestle. And yet there will come a time when time is no more. Undoubtedly, we will then have poetry such as this to occupy our time. ❤
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I’m smiling from ear to ear with this most lovely of comments. You really are the “wind beneath my wings” Anna. When that time comes when we sit on clouds, playing harps and eating grapes (or ham!) listening to my poetry, I certainly hope that you will be there.:) xx
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This was very cleverly scripted Marie.. and I happened upon it just in Time.. 🙂 ❤
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Thank you so much Sue. When I said “only time will tell”, I knew I wouldn’t have to wait long for the answer! :)) Always lovely to hear from you and I am still quite jealous of your surname ..:))) How does Marie Dreamwalker sound? Is it worth me contacting the deed poll people? xx
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I chose Dreamwalker because of its meaning.. 🙂 when I started blogging back in 2007 🙂 And again loved your post xx
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It is interesting how much we attribute to time, especially because it’s such a made up construct. I would argue that it’s the cause of all of our ills as well. Beautiful writing marie (I never know if I should capitalize your name or not).
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Well said Kathy! It is a made up construct and I suppose it is human nature to label everything so that we can make sense of it. It’s a bit like would a rose smell just as sweet if it were known by any other name? I’m paraphrasing horribly here. :)) If “time” was called something else, it would still be what it is: something which we can’t quite quantify, but it is there. Thank you for the compliment about my writing – it is high praise coming from such a gifted writer as yourself and I am Marie with a capital “M”. :)))
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Kathy makes a very valid point about time being somewhat artificialized by humankind. It is of course, as we now know, a variable and not a linear constant, being interleaved with space. Perhaps of more immediate interest is the fact that no one can ever experience it. We experience phenomena, but never time itself, it being inferred from those phenomenal representations of the mind and senses. And yet instinctively we believe that we do experience time, even though we don’t and never can. In that respect it’s like gravity. Thanks for this excellent and thought-provoking article, Marie. With all best wishes, Hariod.
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Yes Kathy does make a very valid point and so of course do you Hariod. You can neither see or touch time which makes a paradox of my opening line. But in trying to describe it in a way that shows how it affects mankind, I wanted to say it is ethereal but it is also solid because of the way it is perceived and spoken about as if it were all of these things. I hope I’m not confusing you! You see the effects of time in “ageing”, and the seasons, and the developments in history – so you know time has passed. Thank you for commenting, you always sound very knowledgeable and it’s always a joy to hear from you. With very best wishes, Marie
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Hi Marie,
Amen. Use that time wisely. You never know what tomorrow will bring.
Thank you,
Gary
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You make a valid point, Gary. Thank you for taking the time to comment. 🙂
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Man.. Youve got some talent. I dont think I wouldve been able to write this. lol I value time so much, Its more important to me than money. And Ive also wondered about some of things you mentioned too.
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Thank you! What do you expect from a WO-man?:))) You are too kind with your comments and they are much appreciated. Thank you for reading.
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lol @ WO-man. Youre welcome. I enjoyed myself.
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I think in a secretive way, father time and mother nature are married. That’s probably why. Think of time and nature. They go hand in hand. The seasons, life, death, hibernation, rain, snow, heat etc. Maybe I’m reading too much into it, but in my mind they are married and their offsprings is the world.
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And do they have a double-barrelled surname: Mr & Mrs Nature -Time? lol I do like your concept of them being secretly married. But I wish they had more control over their offspring: We humans must exasperate and frustrate Father Time and Mother Nature with our unruly behaviour. What a wonderful world this would be if we emulated the beauty of nature and spent more time being kind to each other?
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Humans we have primitive behaviors. The problem now is we try to mask those behaviors.
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Yes and sometimes for the most part unsuccessfully. The good thing though is that there are genuinely good people and we must remember that. So often we focus on evil and the bad stuff, but there are those who fight every day for human rights and the right to exercise those rights.
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Goodness gets overlooked in today’s Capitalist culture. Remember there was a time when it wasn’t all about business? You left your work at work. There was a time when people held doors open for the elderly or for ladies. Also factor in the geographical aspect. I live in a major city and the average median Income is $100,000 per household. Not too many doors being held open here hahhahahahahah
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You make a good point here. Seems the more money you have and access to wealth, the more good manners and a strong sense of community go out the window. Mind you it works the other way too: if you are poor and there is poverty where you live, the sense of strong links in the community can be eroded because people are forced into crime and jealousy. They want what you have and are prepared to kill to get it. It seems we can’t win either way sometimes.
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There is a solution however: treating people as equals. I’m actually working on something that will talk about this. Even though we are not equal (societal), we can learn to be more civil.
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I’m looking forward to reading that. And yes I agree with you about learning to be civil towards one another. It’s not always easy to get along like one big family, because we are all so different, racially, culturally, and we have different values and standards. That is all a part of our diverse culture, but as human beings we owe it to ourselves and society as a whole to work together to present a united front. Heaven knows we have so much pitfalls everyday of our lives, we need to support and take care of each other. There is more than enough to go around in this world of ours. There’s plenty for everyone, but because of human greed and selfishness, it seems that there are layers of society where there are the privileged few who have it all and those at the bottom of the pile who have nothing at all. We need great leadership and people who are prepared to work together for the good of all. Tareau me and you are gonna sort it right? 🙂
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We had a conversation some time back about something similar: ““She’s been with us for almost a year now, it’s time she got used to us”. Thoughts voiced aloud by a mother who didn’t understand her small daughter and thought time was all that was needed to bridge the gap between leaving her child and getting to know her years later. ”
Thought I’d check in on you and what a surprise.
You’ll have to forgive me but I actually scrolled to see what classic writer wrote this only to see MEW. You? I’m guessing? Wow. Impressed.
One reads a lot of prose / poetry on WordPress that makes you tip toe backwards off the blog and pretend you never read it, rather than leave a comment. This sure ain’t one of them. It’s always a pleasure to read when someone has mastered ‘wordsmithery,’ pacing and all that x factor-y stuff that’s hard to teach.
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Thank you so much for your wonderful comment. My head is swelling ever so slightly at being compared to a “classic” writer – much thanks! And yes, my initials are MEW. It’s funny that words used in earshot when I was a small child, painful at the time, are now a source of pleasure for me when praised so glowingly in later life.
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Taking back control of a negative? That’s how it SHOULD be! 🙂
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Thank you so much for helping me to see it that way. Bless you. 🙂
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You’re welcome! 🙂
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This is beautifully written. Lyrical and clever.
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Can I thank you for reading so much of what I’ve written. I can’t tell you how much it means to me that you have taken the time to comment and such beautiful sentiments too! 🙂
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Timeless topic craftily woven into the very tapestry of time. In other words, good, real good!
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Thank you so much. I’m glad you liked it. Thank you for taking the time to comment, it is much appreciated.
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Ohhh Maria… Time gets me in trouble all the time…
but I’m told this is due to my lack of attention to time!
Now your poetic punctuation tick-tocks to me…
and I continue to sift ‘n shift the sands of time 🙂 💜 Jackie@KWH
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Jackie thank you so much for commenting. Isn’t it funny how time affects us: I have a friend who is never on time for anything. I on the other hand am at least 10 minutes early and I panic if I think I’m going to be late.
Time gets you into trouble huh? :)) XxX
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Yup… we can ignore time all we want, but it just keeps tickin’
My husband is timely, like you, while my effort is improving! 😉 💜 Jackie@KWH
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Jackie, I’m sure your timing is perfect!:)xx
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Awe you’re so sweet, Marie ❤ God's timing is perfect… As for me, I'm just trying to keep up! 🙂 💜 Jackie@KWH
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I sometimes yearn for a time when there was no time. When there were no timepieces incessantly beating the drum to march by. When life was ruled not by the hands of a clock but by the sun, ticking its way smoothly through the heavens. What would it be like, I wonder? Would we be liberated to a life of freedom? No, I think not. we would merely end up watching the sun instead of the clock.
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Denzil, I’m inclined to agree with you. But I think if we were watching the sun instead of the clock. life would be less fraught. There is something about the simplicity of nature that is simply beguiling. Oh for a day with no clocks! 🙂
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I agree, it is certainly beguiling. Initially I think it would be extremely difficult. We are hard-wired to the clock. I would like to give it a good go though.
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Yes I guess we are in modern civilizations hard wired to the clock and yes the transition would be difficult. But I can’t help thinking that in simpler communities where they depend on nature and are not so materialistic, there must be a whole different vibe for communities like
that.
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This is wonderful. And just on time for me!
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Thank you Charis. A timely post indeed! 🙂
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