Is time lost?

 

I was going to write something else, but this became more warranted given it has been a few weeks…

One of the biggest problems that I have is routine. I hate routine. I think that routine is the devil. As a kid I found that it was something that made it easier for my parents to know where I was so that they could make me do the chores that I didn't want to do and that they were fully capable of doing themselves. As I got older, it turned into a feeling of keeping it frosty so that the "Man" could not find you (naive wasn't I). Then in young adulthood, I hated routine just simply because I could never know what was going to happen, and I should just go with the flow of the day and let things happen as they may. And as I continue my long journey toward old age, I find that the more and more I am taxed with chores and work and honey-do's and events and appointments that a routine is rearing its ugly head again in my life. Simply put, it is as if I am the darkness that it calls friend, and it wishes to speak with me again.

So in an attempt to organize my life, I have made a feeble contract with routine. To spare you the in depth details of our agreement, it basically says that in order to ensure that I am not losing time that is needed to complete the things that I need to do today, routine agrees to lay the foundation and framework known as a schedule in my life and agrees to allow me full control on how to build upon that, and I agree to abide by the rules of need for some organization in life. It sounded like a fair and reasonable agreement when I signed, but I didn't read the fine print. I didn't realize that as I grew in my career that the term schedule would take on a slightly different meaning. I didn't realize that the framework that I agreed to would require that I devote most of my time performing tasks that were set in deep routine. That these tasks, which goes by many names (i.e. work, job, contract, consult), would require more time to complete. I didn't realize that routine got me for a huge cost, and that I am required to spend more time working toward keeping routine alive. If I didn't, then the cost would expand into homelessness, starving nights, being lucky to have found clothes in a dumpster somewhere that fit me.

But am I really losing time? Is a routine just a ruse to make you believe that you have control of time?

Consider this...

The Law of the Conservation of Energy states that energy cannot be created nor destroyed, but can be changed from one form to another. As time is nothing more than a measurement of the use of energy to either transform something into something else, or to transfer energy from a stored state to an active state, one could technically argue that time is never lost. It is just changed from a past state to a present state in preparation for a future state to become the present state (don’t spend too much time on this, unless your name is Michio Kaku). Time wants to live in the present state just the same way that water wants to be in a liquid state, or Kanye wants to be in an egotistical state, or politicians want to be Head of State. That only means that Qui Gon Jinn was on to something when he said, “Be mindful of the living force, young padawan.” Everyone should prepare for the future, but not at the expense of living in the moment. Learn from your past, as it should help shape your present, but do not let it become the controller of your present, as ice controls the temperature of water. You are the vessel of your energy, and how you choose to guide its flow will ultimately guide the paths that you take on your journey through linear time.

But there is more to this to consider.

Notice that I said that you are the “vessel of your energy.” I did not say that you are the master of your energy. Energy will flow when it wishes, like a river over land or rain down a window pane. Man’s greatest plight is the need to control that in which it lives. This also means that we attempt to control the energy that flows within us, shaping the creek and rivers in which it flows. If you attempt to guide its flow, you will gain the power that it holds, but at a cost. If you let the flow of take a natural path, which for many of us is the path that we were destined to take from birth, you will find yourself much happier. If you don’t believe me, try to stand in the path of water flowing in a river or stream. You will find that it is a lot more work involved when you do that, as opposed to letting the river take you leaving you the task of avoiding the jagged rocks that will show up along the way.

But I digress a bit. The question I asked was if time was lost, and if routine was just a ruse to make you think you are in control of time. The final thing to consider here is the answer is yes, and it is also no. As I explained earlier, time cannot be truly lost when you think of it in the same light as energy. However, one can choose to allow their time to merge with another’s time and flow at the rate that the other person’s time does. The most common example would be a job that you hate. You choose to guide your time to flow at the same rate as the company that you work for. That means if they choose to change the flow of energy that time is measuring, you will be affected by that. If you chose to guide it back to your full control, you may find yourself not in the office on Monday morning. And the feeling of lost time will wiggle in making your think about your past and where you may have gone wrong.

You are the keeper of your own time, just like you are the vessel of energy. If your energy decides to flow in sync with the company or work that you do, that means that you are meant to do that work, and you will enjoy it more. Your time will be well spent in that situation and you will never experience loss. And routine? That is just the boat that you use to travel down the river that is your energy flow, with a full GPS installed so that you can be prepared for the rocks that are leaving the future to become your present. So, as I learn this, I am finding that routine is something to embrace, so as long as you are the one that owns it.