Can I really manage time?
Mostly in my time off growing up, I could be found snooping around my siblings’ room pretending to be doing some cleaning. As if…! Just like little Kevin in “Home Alone”, I would venture inside the house to distract myself from boredom. Curiosity about things always kept me busy and in good company where I would lose track of time passing by. Unlike me, my older siblings had a structured and very busy lifestyle. From squash games to tennis on top of rigorous studies at their school levels, they wouldn’t waste much time except when we would all watch movies or catch a scrabble game until midnight with a “to be continued round” … ha-ha good times ? Since then, I just wanted to freeze time when experiencing good times. Nevertheless, I was very fascinated with their book collections. Lots of management and inspirational books, most of which revolved around “time-management.” Additionally, I would also indulge in “self-help” book found in the local library. I wanted to do more with my time. I felt that I was not utilizing my time productively.
Fast forward, I have recently been pondering over the concept of “time”. Where did time go? I experience “time”. Is there a time machine out there? All moments get captured and stored in my memory. How do I explain the existence of those moments and that of my memory? Where do the experienced moments and feelings get stored? There seems to be a consciousness at play making me feel nostalgic by replaying all past moments at my will. Really, what is time?
I am living in “time”. Time is a constant in the sense that I always experience it. Let us replace time by a variable “t.” We use this in our physics equations to calculate things such as speed. We schedule appointments, meetings or catch a flight at a specific time, for example. I can only define “t” based on those moments where I experience things. It is something continuous yet limited to my experience. I can only describe “t” with what I observe which is nothing but change taking place. Example: from sunrise to sunset is time and vice versa where the change of position of the sun is taking place at different moments.
- “Consider the flight of time!” Quran (103:1)
Time is experiencing change in creation. I am changing as well as the things around me are changing at every moment. I am given existence with time. In this created world, we live with the concept of day and night and we arrange our lives according to the rotation of the earth or the phases of the moon. Example: a lunar calendar is set up according to the phases of the moon, whereas the gregorian calendar is set up according to the rotation of the earth. Morning through evening, Monday through Sunday, January through December is how we keep track of time and arrange our lives. However, time or the days that we experience are actually changes in our existence. Based on the movement of things, we define a day as a full rotation of the sun from rise to set. Example: the earth’s revolution around the sun is a change and we need to wonder how is change happening.
- Time is creation continuously as happening and we perceive this movement as change.
- Movement of things from one place to another is time.
- No one can freeze a moment.
I have a very shallow understanding of existence and time. Existence is time which is nothing but experiencing a moment that come and go and is still going on as far as my experience of it is concerned. I define time with past, present and future. That is the only task I can do given my existence in this universe. But can I really describe time? Can I measure time? Is time something inanimate that I can hold on to? No.
Can we say that time=existence?
- Existence is creation happening all at once, which is time.
- If I am given time/existence, then there must be a Conscious Agent of change that I experience here.
What does my existence/time point to?
- The existence of time points to its Source of Existence or a One that brings each moment into existence.
There is a famous saying: “God is time.”
What is God? Here is another taken for granted concept. “God” is a concept that I use in order to refer my existence and the existence of time to.
So, can I really manage time? Or I rather manage my tasks within my given time.
Tags: Existence, God, Time