Time as objective reality has never made much sense to me. It’s what happens that matters. How can minutes and years, devices of our own creation, mean the same thing to gnats and to cedars? Two hundred years is young for the trees whose tops this morning are hung with mist. It’s an eyeblink of time for the river and nothing at all for the rocks…If there is meaning in the past and in the imagined future, it is captured in the moment. When you have all the time in the world, you can spend it, not on going somewhere, but on being where you are. So I stretch out, close my eyes, and listen to the rain.
Robin Wall Kimmerer
As a young man I would lay in the grass and daydream. Seems I usually ventured into the future, accomplishing feats such as being the hero in the big game or the hero saving the fair maiden. Now that I am older I’m able to look back and see how those daydreams kept me from living in the moment. I was not experiencing the world I was a part of. The lessons they have given me is an awareness that helps me live in the now more often and the desire to live there. The gift of photography, recovery from alcoholism, and a spiritual practice have also been key in that transformation. Now when I stretch out, close my eyes, and listen to the rain I am learning to be present and enjoy the rain. I have the time to be present.
