Perceptions of Time | Write Here Wednesday
Your stories on lost & found time
For #WriteHere this week, we prompted you to think about your relationship with time. We’ve chosen to highlight a few of the responses we read below, and they’re all quite different: one writer chose to reflect on the year she lost to Covid. Another wrote about her realization that she needed to stop worrying about any moment but the present. A third writer laid out the very practical ways in which a four-hour workweek would change her approach to life and work. I especially enjoyed the fourth entry below, which begins as a story about what the world would be like if days were longer than 24 hours, but then takes an abrupt left turn to ruminate on how the Shabbat, or Jewish day of rest, prompts one to see time itself as something holy and worthy of celebration.
Look out for more prompts next week. In the meantime, add your reflections on how you perceive time, or respond to any of our previous prompts, and tag your posts with “Writehere.”
Losing A Year
No matter how much money we have in the bank, time is not something we can purchase. It’s not something we can get back. Once the minutes pass, those hours and seconds and minutes are gone once the sun sets within the sky. And so, one might say that it’s imperative to treat time as the precious jewel that it is — and resist the urge to be flippant about the days that stretch out before you.
There is No Such Thing as Time
As I kid, I would joke that I wished to be a vampire. My reasoning for this was frank. “If I didn’t need to sleep, I would be a millionaire by now,” I would proudly declare. My mom would laugh as she asked me about all of the things I would accomplish through the dead of the night. Excitedly, I would rattle off an extensive list of hobbies, crafts, and forms of entertainment I wished to experience. There were goals I knew I would attain if I just had more time.
3 Benefits of the Four-Day Workweek
Weekends are usually completely booked. Saturday is for errands and family activities. All the grocery shopping, little league games, and yard work must get done. Sunday, the supposed day of rest, is for all the miscellaneous stuff that didn’t get done on Saturday. Plus, getting ready for the workweek. That does not account for church or the Sunday Blues. At what point do you really take time for yourself? We try to squeeze 10 minutes here and 15 minutes there for meditation or journaling. An extra day to relax would be ideal. I would spend more time with family and friends or just be by myself. The extra day during the weekend would allow for a more relaxing break before returning to the hustle and bustle of the 9 to 5.
Hours Gained, Time Lost, and Unfinished Stories. Conclusion? Celebrate the Sacred.
My days are 24 hours long. I know this, even though I don’t really know it in how I live. I forget sometimes, what a gift every hour, every moment is. I forget to live it that way.
Want to be featured in the next Write Here Wednesday? Check out our weekly prompts, write out a response, and tag “Writehere.”
