I was introduced to the concept of time at the age of five, when I was instructed not to get out of bed and wake my parents up until 6:00 am. My mother carefully traced a six on a large piece of paper, as it would appear on my digital clock, and told me to wait until that image appeared on my clock before getting up. I spent long mornings waiting eagerly for the stubborn digital five to melt away into six so that the day could begin.
Those mornings were the start of a life inextricably wrapped up in time. Activities begin, then end. If we are lucky, we may get lost in the present moment of the activity and lose sense of time for a brief moment, but are quickly drawn back. Time puts safe boundaries around everything. It promises an end, and then the beginning of something new. Time gives a boundary that brings a welcome relief even to the most pleasant of activities. I love tennis, but I want to know that a tennis date can end after an hour and a half. Socializing with friends is divine, but that too must have its bounds.
When I first began playing my fiddle, time went away. A weight that has rested upon my shoulders since my earliest memories has suddenly been lifted. Seconds melt into hours, which melt into days. I drift off to sleep hearing fiddle tunes and wake up imagining my gentle hold on the bow as it dances across the strings. There is no start or end or anything else in the world. I play until I am late for commitments, until I forget what day it is, until neither of those things matters.
Surely there is something in this world that lifts away TIME for everybody, connecting us to ourselves, the divine, and the present moment so intensely that we experience life anew. I have found my time lifter. It does not matter that I am a beginner and that half the time I play out of tune, for in timelessness, I have found something that amounts to pure gold, regardless of skill level or ability to perform.
May everyone find his or her lifter of time and embrace this gift.
No comments:
Post a Comment