Time

Time is a fickle creature. It takes on many guises.


Time passes slowly when you are waiting. Waiting in a doctors rooms for those results, waiting for a baby to arrive, waiting for news. Time drags when you haven't had enough sleep, the house is a mess, the children are fighting, and all you want is a coffee.

And yet time goes so fast when you don't want it to. When happy giggles, or the delightful ramblings of a toddler playing with her toys fill the air. When the afternoon is filled with friends, and wine, and laughter. Or there is blissful silence. Time passes quickly without you realising. When tiny clothes no longer fit. When words tumble out of little mouths filled with tiny teeth and not a gummy smile. When you realise a baby has become a toddler.

And time can seem to stand still, although this too is but an illusion. At 3am, when you are feeding a baby who is now peaceful; watching the dim light reflect off their eyelashes and rest on their cheek. Those are moments when you never want time to move on. Or when you are holding a sick child, feeling their hot skin sear into you. You would do anything at that point to make time move quickly, to take away their pain.

Time lets us be optimistic. We look forward to the time when the children sleep through; are more independent; when the tantrums stop. We look forward to holiday time and Christmas time. We look forward to a different time, where life is easier, and the worries of today seem less important.

We look forward to the first time - the first step, the first word, the first smile and wave. We look forward to the last time - the last nappy, the  last swimming lesson, the last tantrum. Sometimes we don't even know some of these things have happened until it is too late.

Yet time can be cruel. The image that is reflected in the mirror has been changed by time. Older, more wrinkled, saggier. Different. Time makes you reflect. To look back and wish for things that could have been. And yet in reflection, one can see improvements. With time comes wisdom. The realisation that whatever has happened in the past, has allowed the development of new paths, new journeys.

Time allows healing. Bones knit, muscles repair themselves, tissues heal. Health returns. Hearts stop aching. With time, memories become blurry. Pain fades, although never truly disappears.

We waste time; we pass time; take it one day at a time; we never have enough. We run out of time. We can never truly stop time. We need time to keep moving, to keep going, to keep on living. What we should do is take each moment of time for what it is - a second, a minute, an hour, a tick of a clock, a sigh, a breath. Take these moments and do whatever they ask us to do, but be aware that soon that moment will pass. Time will move on, and so shall we.