Time

The relativity of Time is a well-known phenomenon, experienced by everyone at various stages. It is an oft repeated saying that time is running or dragging at a snail’s pace. Why is it that Monday to Friday feels like a lifetime, and Saturday and Sunday feel like the blink of an eye? Why is it that hours of sleeping feels like seconds and seconds of boredom feels like hours? Why is it that a bad movie feels like it will never end and a good one seems to have ended too soon? And pray, why is it that time with someone you love feels like it is never enough and moments waiting to meet them feels like an eternity has gone by?

While these questions are interesting to think about, what intrigues me most about Time are the lessons it teaches us about people in our lives and the natural process of elimination that is brought with it. It is rather fascinating that no amount of insight or closeness or understanding really tells you who are the people who will be with you through the highs and lows of life, and it is only over a period of time that you realize who you can truly depend on to be with you forever.

A wise old man once told me about this elimination process. It was one of those times when I felt betrayed and dejected about people around me and felt insecure about everyone in the process.  I did not know whom to trust and whom to consider my well-wisher, nor did I have any idea as to who will be by my side through my worst times and who will leave. The wise man came to me, and told me to just wait and watch, and no amount of thinking or worrying would ever be able to answer these questions and it only through time that I will know who my real friends, who will stay over time. Those that do not stay, were not meant to be in my life in the first place, and through this natural process of elimination everyone who is not needed in my life will naturally go away. Time alone will tell.

Today when I look back, his words make perfect sense. The people who have stood the test of time truly belong to my life and all those fears and insecurities have vanished. The good and bad times have come and gone, and those who have stayed have earned their place in the scheme of my life, and are here to stay. Time alone was enough to determine this fact, and no amount of introspection or insight into those relationships could ever give me any more knowledge or understanding about how these bonds would pursue. Time passed makes me realize the perishability of human interactions and I find comfort in the fact that it is not in my control or anyone else’s.

Have to end with a poem by Robert Frost, which sums up the phenomenon so very aptly.

Nature's first green is gold,

Her hardest hue to hold.

Her early leaf's a flower;

But only so for an hour.

Then leaf subsides to leaf.

So Eden sank to grief,

So dawn goes down to day.

Nothing gold can stay.