Changing Concept of Time

By Ms. Linda Barrend, Guest Writer

When we're young there's an almost infinite amount of time stretched out before us. There's this huge swath of time in order to finish school, get a job, get married, have kids, retire.

As a kid, I spent large parts of my summers riding my bike aimlessly around the neighborhood or sitting in my favorite tree and reading a book, or just lying on the grass to stare at clouds let my imagination fly. When you're 8 years old, a week in the summer can feel like a month. As you get older, time inexplicably speeds up. While the youth have time to kill, the rest of us are desperately rushing after it in order to save it, or squash it by cramming more and more into our day until you turn around and there's another big event celebrating the passage of time. It's yet another birthday or New Year's Eve to smack you with the reality of: Wow! Another year has passed?

This global pandemic gave us a forced time out. With all of us having no idea what will happen or how long it will last, we go through our days differently now than we used to. Lately I've been feeling that if I can't do it today, no problem because I have tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow. Somehow this time of my life has brought me back to my concept of time as a child. The clock has stopped. I have nothing but time.

I'm cooking long elaborate meals now (instead of my usual 30 minutes or less), spending more time with my husband who usually travels one to two weeks each month, and enjoying spending time with my teenage daughter who's usually at school or at an activity or tutoring or hanging out with her friends or...

For me, this is the silver lining in all of this quarantining or "social distancing". While we stay and wait, time stands still.