The Meaning of Time

What happens when humans start to measure time?

Some people pray for time to move slower...

Some people pray for time to move faster...

That is when time starts to lose it's meaning.

In this brilliant book "The Time Keeper", Mitch Albom (one of my favourite authors) wrote about the story of two fictional characters who were caught in these two scenarios, and the journey they went through to discover the true meaning of time. It has definitely touched my heart and mind.

Here are some of the meaningful quotes found in this book:

Try to imagine a life without timekeeping. You probably can’t. You know the month, the year, the day of the week. There is a clock on your wall or the dashboard of your car. You have a schedule, a calendar, a time for dinner or a movie. Yet all around you, timekeeping is ignored. Birds are not late. A dog does not check its watch. Deer do not fret over passing birthdays. an alone measures time. Man alone chimes the hour. And, because of this, man alone suffers a paralyzing fear that no other creature endures. A fear of time running out.

It is never too late or too soon. It is when it is supposed to be.

With endless time, nothing is special. With no loss or sacrifice, we can’t appreciate what we have.

There is a reason God limits our days..to make each one precious.

Knowing something and understanding it were not the same thing.

As mankind grew obsessed with its hours, the sorrow of lost time became a permanent hole in the human heart. People fretted over missed chances, over inefficient days; they worried constantly about how long they would live, because counting life’s moments had led, inevitably, to counting them down. Soon, in every nation and in every language, time became the most precious commodity.

Mankind is connected in ways it does not understand - even in dreams.

Everything man does today to be efficient, to fill the hour? It does not satisfy. It only makes him hungry to do more. Man wants to own his existence. But no one owns time. When you are measuring life, you are not living it.

Consider the word “time.” We use so many phrases with it. Pass time. Waste time. Kill time. Lose time. In good time. About time. Take your time. Save time. A long time. Right on time. Out of time. Mind the time. Be on time. Spare time. Keep time. Stall for time. There are as many expressions with “time” as there are minutes in a day. But once, there was no word for it at all. Because no one was counting. Then Dor began. And everything changed.

Time is a very precious commodity. Spend it wisely on matters which matter the most to you.