Face Time, Time Off – for Earth

Time is precious. In our modern days, time is arguably the most expensive portion that we (do not) have.

From one day to the next, life buzzes … to the beats of time. We are busy bodies, busy minds … who on most days are tired, and anxious. But time does not pause, so that we could catch up and settle down. Nor does time pick up, so that we stop wasting precious time.

Time moves

In our time-poor world, time flies. And time is unstoppable. It moves quicker than most of us prefer, and we are (constantly) in danger of running out of time.

No one owns time. And as our lives get busier, time does not slow down to ease our minds from the stresses of living, family, community, work, and calling. Time ticks on, and it is not concerned about what we do, or who(m) we are. It is also not concerned (bothered, worried) with the well-being of Earth.

Sometimes, however, time does not move fast enough, and we become anxious as we wait … for time to catch up. In these cases, also, time regulates what we do, or not do, and it shapes how we (not) think and who we are (not). Time controls our actions, our minds, and our lives.

Time is unseen

We see the rotation and hear the ticking of clocks and watches as the movement of time, but time does not reside in those gadgets. Time is transcendent. Time is not embodied.

Our world gets busier, but time still ticks to the same intervals. And when we run out of daylight, we move the hands and numbers on the watches and clocks – and we assume that we can control time. But we mistake the time-keeping gadgets for time itself – our unstoppable, unseen portion.

So what?

We attribute our busy and noisy lives to many factors, e.g., to social media over-reaching into our private spaces, to cost of living requiring that we work more and more (at workplaces and at homes), to AI putting words and ideas into our minds and hearts, to climate change and geopolitics threatening life on earth, and so on, and on. We get stressed, because these factors play out on, and therefore rob us of, our precious time.

What if we conceive time as embodied, so that we could see and face it? If we could face time then we would see that we live and move in, and thus learn to be accountable for, spaces – on Earth. And if we face time, then we might be able to turn off the way that time controls our lives and minds – on Earth.

Face Time

First, we need to change our mindsets so that we account for where we are – on Earth. We work, and are paid, according to time, but we live in interconnecting spaces – on Earth. Even thinking that we are in “real time” draws us away from the “real world.” It would therefore help if we learn to think and speak in terms of space – on Earth – rather than disembodied time.

We do not live in time. Rather, we live among real faces, of humans and other-kinds, in interconnected spaces – on Earth.

Time Off

Second, we would benefit from freeing ourselves from the control of time. We will not be able to stop time, but we could take time off – from the inclination to race against time. We can’t win that race, because development and technology do not sleep and they make time exponential and out of reach.

Similarly, we will not be able to remove ourselves from the busyness of the real world. But we could take time off from the noises that stress and make us mad.

In the larger picture, taking time off from the busyness of life will help ease the burdens and stresses that we bring upon Earth. In this connection, it is now our time – to nurture and promote the well-being of Earth!

We see the rotation and hear the ticking of clocks and watches as the movement of time, but time does not reside in those gadgets. Time is transcendent. Time is not embodied.