When the Timing is Right
By Todd Pequeen
Oh, how time fascinates me! I remember obsessively counting in seconds the last five minutes of class before the liberating school bell would ring. If I felt energetic I could speed walk home and catch a 3:00 TV program from the start. My earliest time of stress was caused by my 5:00 “be home for dinner” curfew, how I hated cutting a basketball game short. I absolutely dreaded the fact that I had to wait 3 more years in time in order to graduate high school, before I could finally move to another state for college and finally be on my own. Yet, my summer months on the shores of Lake Erie I wanted to last forever. Time is prevalent to most human beings regardless of their culture or heritage. None of us can ignore it, and most of us both love and hate this…clicking clock. It is even said that to have too much time on your hands is the devils workshop, very scary indeed.
There was one time in my life that I was so care free that I actually did not know what month it was. Months of travel with no itinerary and ample enough finances allowed me to enter into this head space of clocklessness. You should try it sometime. Forgetting the hour or the day of the week is one thing, to not know what month it is is another. It felt very liberating to me, I wonder if that’s how other species in the animal kingdom feel? When I am in a city I notice everybody wears watches. I wonder why because cell phones, computers, subways, cars, and practically every room I go into has a clock on the wall. Is it really THAT important? I have grown a strong enmity to being reminded so constantly.
I have also grown to love good timing and what it can bring. Timing with love and cupids arrow can be some of the most wonderful events in a man or woman’s life, good timing also produces babies! The time for rainy season here in Manuel Antonio I delight in. Time is also a doctor and a nurse as it can heal all wounds. We often suppress feelings about the timing of the grim reaper. Great financial success or failure depends on timing and some people are fanatics and possessed by this very skill. A stitch in time saves nine. I have heard many a friend say “the timing just isn´t right” and my Mom used to wake me with “its time to rise and shine” although my body, mind, and spirit were clearly opposed. I am trying to make time and all of its influences as unimportant as possible in my life. Sure, we all have appointments and deadlines but I´m talking about loosening up mental schedules and routines. The times I remember most were often spontaneous, love filled, and often get repeated when I am with the company of those who were there. After all, time flies when your having fun. The very best memories are relived on our dying days which is another guaranteed time we will all share.
Happy hours vary with certain people and locations and siestas are rather oblique by timeless definition. A fraction of a second can turn a gold medalist into a bronze and history and its timing is studied, debated, and even changed to suit new agendas and ways of thinking. Oh, where has the time gone and when we were living in the moment? To care not at all would make me a bum and to be run by a strict agenda of time makes me a pawn. In the end I sincerely hope we all have time to exercise our hearts desires, live our dreams, and create as much freedom and joy despite times limitations and choke hold.