Time is Real!

"Man has no control over time; it is a gift to be cherished, not a possession to be kept."
​~Unknown

This is usually the time of year when I write a blog about how time isn’t real. How our whole concept of time is just a big game of collective make-believe. How it isn’t really New Year’s Day today, it’s just that at some point in history we drew an imaginary point on our eternal loop around the sun and declared that this is where one year ends and the next begins. However, to be honest. I’m not totally convinced that time is an illusion.

Evidence of the reality of time is all around us. For example, if you saw through a log, you find that it’s made up of a series of concentric rings, each ring representing a year of growth for the tree. You can also go to places like the Grand Canyon and really understand how it took over five million years to form. Of course, you only have to look in a mirror to recognize that time is real. If time is just an illusion, then why are you getting older?

The Babylonians are credited with inventing modern timekeeping over 2,500 years ago. But that doesn’t mean they invented time. Nobody invented time, it is one of the fundamental components of the universe, along with matter and space. Without time, the world would be static- nothing would be able to grow or change. Time is the element that allows you to create and manifest, to develop mental concepts into physical form.

However, while the element of time is real, the experience of time pressure is completely self-created. Time is constantly flowing along because that’s what time does- that’s what reality is. Where we go wrong is thinking that time somehow belongs to us. This belief leads to all kinds of unnecessary stress. Many people can’t stand the idea of wasting their time for example. For these people, the longer something takes, the more stressed out they become until each passing second becomes torture. Other people live their life in a panic, falsely believing that they don’t have enough time, or that their time is running out.

So, by all means, let’s take a moment to celebrate the New Year. Timekeeping may be a human invention, but time itself is what makes this whole experience possible. Let’s commit to this being the year where we break through the illusory pressure of time and come to rest in the eternal peace of the present moment.