Time and Waiting

Time can have a different level of importance to different people. In the grand scheme of things, to me, time is the most valuable possession we all have. We give it indiscriminately not realizing that when we waste it, we waste a part of ourselves. The amount of time we spend with our family…or don’t spend. The time we give to an employer who could care less about us and will replace us at the first break in the dam. The hours, weeks, days, months we spend with a lover we knew was fucked up from the beginning but we didn’t want to be alone so we gave and gave our time away to him or her.

The time we spend consciously waiting for something or someone is the absolute worst of all. We sit there or stand. Twiddling our fingers or tapping our feet. Wondering where that person is. Why haven’t they called? Could they be in traffic or seriously standing us up? Then, there are the chronic offenders who treat time like a rag doll they’ve grown tired of playing with. Whatever on a deadline! Forget a movie time or a business meeting starting at the appointed hour. They let events, obligations, meetings run into each other never catching up to the clock. Who cares? That is what they probably say to themselves. But the other party cares perhaps. What the tardy party is missing overall is the opportunity that lies in being on time. There is truth to the old saying, “The early bird catches the worm.” In the early stage, there is a lot to be observed. The upper hand is more easily obtained. When someone drags in late to an event or a meeting, and they are looking to gain something, they have already lost a bit of power. They are subject to the apologies and the second class standard by which they run their life as a result of not being respectful of themselves and others. Because truly, how can you respect someone when you have played loose and fast with their most prized possession? And because they are always late, they will never realize this.

Time marks our lives. Time grants us space and energy and breakthroughs and precious moments. If we don’t have time, we are not moving forward. We are standing still which means – on Earth anyway – we are dead.

In the coming year, time will be valued even more. I will be another year older and while I feel all manners of time crunching in on me, I will demand my time be treated with the utmost respect. If someone has a problem with that, then time flies for them.