Time for Thyme... or Thyme for Time?!
Helping me stay mindful!
I love a play on words! I have always been fascinated by language, words and writing and how stringing words together to form a sentence can help you express thoughts and feelings.
I also have a fascination with time (probably something to do with being a massive Star Trek fan all my life, love all things space and fancied myself to be an astrophysicist when I grew up!!) But time is relative…. it is also fickle… for example: in a work day, there is “never enough time” to get tasks done; whereas, watching my child grow from birth to 3 years old has gone by in “the blink of an eye”.
Time can also have somewhat of a nurturing quality and can slow down to help us in difficult times. I have always found that in times when we experience loss and we are grieving, that time almost “stands still” to cocoon us in a “bubble”, where the time we are experiencing is slower than the outside world. This, of course, is my perception of it. Everybody experiences time and loss and grief differently.
“Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today. Let us begin.” – Mother Teresa
A quick Google search of theories about time, you will find Einstein’s Special Theory of Relativity, where he determined that time is relative. In this, he meant that “the rate at which time passes depends on your frame of reference”.
And then there is Aristotle’s Paradox of Time. He argued that “time can have neither beginning nor end. Every moment is both the end of an era and the start of something new; every event is both the outcome of something and the cause of something else. So how could time possibly end?”
Getting back to thyme… it really is the simple things in life than can help us remain mindful and present in the moment. The smell of thyme brings me back to my childhood and spending time with my maternal Nana - I remember sitting there at Christmas time on the couch, with a big bowl and bunches of thyme, picking off the tiny leaves for the stuffing. This memory warms my heart.
Now, watching my son getting to spend lots of time with his Grandad, is just such a gift. I hope he gets many more years of this time and that it doesn’t go too quickly for either of them. I sat at the kitchen table on New Year’s Day, picking the beautifully fragranced leaves off the thyme - simultaneously feeling very mindful, present in the moment, feeling the warmth of memories past, and feeling hopeful for the future. And on top of all that, a feeling of deep sadness for a loss we experienced as a family on New Year’s Eve and for its impact on my parents. I could see in their eyes, that they fear the slipping of time now at their age. I pray time slows down for them. The next week will be difficult, but I hope that they may be “cocooned” by time and be allowed to simultaneously be present in the moment, whilst having very fond memories of the past to hold on to.
Life is such a gift, isn’t it!? Time, language, experiences… it really confirms and reinforces to me that we are all connected, everything is connected and we are all energetic beings, incredibly complex and beautiful and the fact that we FEEL so deeply is because at the core of it all… is LOVE ❤️
Thank you for reading. I wish you all a peaceful, joyous, present, abundant and happy New Year. May time go as quickly or slowly or at the pace that you need, and may you be as present in the moments that matter.
Times Paces When as a child I laughed and wept, Time crept. When as a youth I waxed more bold, Time strolled. When I became a full grown man, Time RAN. When older still I daily grew, Time FLEW. Soon I shall find, in passing on, Time gone. O Christ! wilt Thou have saved me then? by Henry Twells
Le grá
Lorraine