Time flies

The saying goes, "Time flies when you're having fun" but, for me, it actually flies all the time whether you're having fun or not.

This lovely image is from an article on the Huffington Post for a DIY project to make your own Time Flies Butterfly Clock.

I can remember one specific school holiday when it really felt like time was moving at a snail's pace. It would have been before I turned 16 and began waitressing. And I was in high school - so I may have been 14. I can clearly remember doing word puzzles in a magazine while lying like a cat in a sunspot on the carpet. That was the last time that I can remember ever feeling bored.  

In a paper published in 2019, researchers present their explanation of why we think time speeds up as we get older - related to the physics of neural signal processing. 

An older theory is that when you're young, you haven't been on the planet for very long so a week or a month makes up a more significant portion of your existence. If you've been around for 40 years, one month is only 0.2% of what you've lived.

I also think that it feels like time flies more and more with each year because we take on more, do more, accomplish more - every minutes becomes a jam-packed blur.

When my one grandmother retired, it was her plan to do... nothing. While she worked, she was incredibly dynamic. She lived in Paris and did courses - like art history at Le Louvre and she travelled and she met up with friends and work colleagues. When she stopped working, she stopped these activities. My dad asked her about this one time.

She filled each day with set routines, like taking an hour to 'prepare' breakfast, cooking lunch and dinner (taking long to do these), going to the shops daily for bread, fruit and the like, and attending to housework. 

Back in Parys, I had retired neighbours who spent most of the day sitting on their chairs outside their garage - facing the street. They would chat to each other and while away the day, watching the world pass by.

Every day, I grasp at time, trying to prevent it from slipping through my fingers. Before I know it Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday have passed and the work-day week is at its end. Again.

There are a lot of people who wait for the day to be done. 

I'm sad for them that they do not have enough to fill their days. And I'm sad for me that I feel like my life is slipping past in a blur. 

Theoretically, at very-nearly 45, I'm in the middle of my 'official' working life. Do I really need to wait another 20 years for time to slow down for me?