Slowly … Slowly … Time and Reality Flow and Suddenly, They Are Gone

My great Uncle Julius who lived in the Appalachians of North Carolina did not allow clocks of any kind in his house. He said each second that ticked on a clock was a second lost in his life. He and Aunt Minnie lived self-sufficiently by the sunrise and set, and by the seasons. I don’t know if he celebrated birthdays or anniversaries. I was too young to ask. I was too young to understand how profoundly Uncle Julius chose to live his life. I was too young to fully comprehend what he Knew.

Think about it.

Humans created clocks and calendars to “track time”. Why? Because, slowly, slowly time and reality flow … and suddenly, they are gone!

When I was a child there were twenty-seven long months between one Christmas and the next, between one birthday and the next. I didn’t really “track time”. I knew when major events occurred. I knew they were annual. I knew a year has twelve months. But the concept of time, and the reality of it, had no direct consequence. It just was. The sun rose and set. The moon rose and set.

As children, we got up early every morning and generally had set bedtimes. If we are lucky we had a caring, loving, and safe environment in which to exist. We adapt to our reality, and each day clicks away. Some good. Some not so good. We are excited to learn to read, to…