School Days

A pic i took during my last days at school (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 


         When September comes I invariably think about school.  It's not just the store back-to-school specials or seeing the kids hitting the sidewalks with their backpacks or even my teacher wife returning to work after her summer vacation.   After all I spent a goodly part of my first 18 years attending school.  The cycle of years has ingrained that innate sense of the school season arriving.

         Now September seems to fly faster than I can grasp, like a playground merry-go-round that is revolving in child time leaving an older less agile me unable to jump onto it.   These days I am more content to watch the darn thing spinning than actually ride.  Still, ride I do.   My mind and body feel slower but the time keeps getting ahead of me just dragging me along with it.

          But when I was a child and then later a teen, September seemed like a thousand months.  At least while the month was passing.    There was so much to do and so much to absorb.  New faces in the classroom, some who might become friends.   New teachers and new curricula.  Homework and tests.  In high school there were the football games that I never attended but was well aware were going on because everyone else seemed interested and the evidence was everywhere in the hallways and around the campus.    Days grew shorter and nights became cooler.

           Soon September was over and I had adapted into the routine of another school year.  With the arrival of fall came the burst of color of the turning leaves.   November was on its way and that heralded the coming of Christmas with another long vacation.   Still, before we allow October to get away there is one more thing that was especially important in my life during grade school...

            Halloween was coming!

            And now with September nearly gone, once again I'm about to arrive at October.  This year, as in the past seven years, Halloween doesn't mean that much to me.  Oh sure, there are the advertisements about seasonal costume shops popping up here and there.   There are the special candy displays in the stores.   I've been seeing Halloween decorations in various yards and business establishments.  None of it matters now--not like it once did...

...to be continued

           Do you still associate September with the start of school?    What was your favorite time of  the school season?    How involved were you in school activities?

E-Everyday starts with… (#atozchallenge)

E-Everyday starts with… 

        Everyday starts with me getting out of bed.  Well, that is, if I'm not sick and rarely have I ever been so sick that I couldn't get out of bed.  To my recollection I don't think I've ever fallen out of bed first thing, but I guess it could have happened.  There have been a few times when I fell after stepping out of bed and then blacking out.  Those times were pretty scary, but I think that's been taken care of by a heart treatment and medication.  No more blacking out I hope.

        On a normal weekday my first operation is usually to wake my wife up so she can get ready for work.  Then I go downstairs and fix breakfast while she's getting ready.  On weekends I'll still get up relatively early--though not awakened by an alarm--and let my wife sleep in until she's ready to get up to have breakfast.

          I seemed to have turned into an early morning riser.  Rarely do I sleep past seven o'clock.  When I think of it though, maybe it has something to do with a natural time clock in me.  I was born in the Eastern Time Zone so now that I'm on the West Coast when it's 6 AM here it's really 9 AM in my birth time.  It's only a theory of course.  Might have some credence or maybe not.

         But since I'm thinking about this topic about waking up in the morning let me just say, I really don't like the time changes in spring and fall.  That really messes with my head.  

          Does your body seem to have an internal clock?    How late would you like to sleep in the mornings if you could?     Are you a night owl?  

Current Time: #atozchallenge

C-Current Time: 

      Explaining the current time is an impossibility if you're trying to do it in writing. Or for any other medium for that matter.  Even a play by play account in real time is no longer current, but something in the past.  If we are hearing someone describe what is happening as they are seeing it, the event is in the past by the time the data is processed in order for the sender to relay to the receiver who likewise might take a split moment in time to comprehend what has been transmitted.

       In other words by the time you've described what you've witnessed to  me, I am getting a history lesson of a sort.  Someone once told me that I was living in the past because I was reminiscing about the way things used to be.   At first I felt defensive, but then realized we all live in the past because by the time we understand the matter of the moment, that one singular little piece of history is old news and the future keeps coming at us until it too passes.  The train of time is what one might envision.  

        Click clack, time is on track.

        But just for the record the time right at this moment is 9:13 PM Wednesday March 16th.  And even as I wrote it the time changed to 9:14.  So you see what I mean?

         Does the future seem like a long time until it gets nearer to you?    What is your favorite way to capture moments in time?    What time is it as you answer this question?

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Standing Still #atozchallenge

The Association  "Standing Still"  (1966)




Standing Still

         Time can be such a mind-bender.   Time toys with us, leading us to believe that we have all the time in the world.   There are those ever so brief periods when time seems to move in slow motion or even come to a stand still.   Then suddenly the moment is behind us, frozen in memory, sometimes fading into the hazy realm of the forgotten or misremembered.

         I think of the mundane like waiting in lines or sitting in the doctor's office.  Sitting in the dentist chair waiting for the discomfort to be over.  Lying on a hospital bed in the emergency room waiting for the approval to be released.   There are those frustrating stretches of being late, being in a hurry, and being stuck in traffic where all the universe seems to have ground to a halt.   I curse the clock and tension mounts.  Then suddenly the waiting is over and I begin waiting for the next thing in life to happen.

         Then there are those moments of supreme serenity when all seems well and I have latched on to a bliss that will extend to forever.  Falling in love for example.  Long leisurely walks or hours of togetherness with that someone with whom I feel secure in knowing that I have felt unending love.   That is until it does end and time stands still with sadness and confusion.

        Some of my best moments where time has come to a standstill have been times alone.  In younger days I would often take long walks in the mountains to find a place to sit and contemplate.  What might have been mere minutes became immeasurable stretches of time by my calculations if there had been any calculating to be done.   They were times when I was accountable to only myself for the most part.   No one cared how I was spending my time.   Time standing still was a permissible event.  The stillness of time was my acceptance of allowing leisure into my existence.  

         The illusion of time stopping can be a rebellion against the constraints of our daily prison of responsibility or a surrender to the circumstances of life over which we have no control.  Either way time appearing to stand still or slow down is just an illusion.  The clock continues to tick and the world continues to turn.  My days are marked off on the calendar of my life like a depleting bank account where no deposits are ever made.

         When does time seems to stand still for you?    Are you more aware of time now than you used to be?  Have you used your time wisely?    How do you squander your time?

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