Where does the time go, past you

The end of the year seems to bring out a lot of people’s introspective side. As someone who spends a good deal of time in Introspection Land I find the sudden population bump kind of annoying. Like living in a popular tourist destination during high season.

Mostly what gets me is the, generally, rhetorical “Where does the time go?”. Now this is actually an interesting question when not said rhetorically. People’s perception of time, their expectation for what comes from time, what they get out of spending their time where they do.

But! The tourists in Introspection Land seem to ask this as a way of saying “Wow. I don’t really pay attention to my life or how I spend my time and periodically something like this comes by to remind me, but don’t worry I’ll forget about this by tomorrow because I’m not actually paying attention now.” At least that’s how it seems to me.

When I think something along the lines of “wow time is flying by” I generally use it as a trigger to reflect on what I’ve been doing, how I’ve been spending my time, if I think I’ve spent it well, etc.

There is also the good old human condition which seems to slow down ‘bad times’ and speed up ‘good times’. Though really all times are just what they are and we insist on labelling everything to death, maybe just to keep ourselves busy.

I don’t suggest we should all be aware of each moment as it passes. That’d be boring. It’s good, needed, to become engrossed in our lives, in what we are doing. It’s also good and needed to take a few moments to reflect on how you feel, what you are doing, you can do this without having to meditate, work it into something else, folding laundry, doing the dishes, stretching.

The time will fly by. Reach out and grab it, strangle everything you can out of it!