My oldest daughter had her first child one week ago. In our conversation last night, she told me that the concept of time had changed for her since the birth of her child. This new mother was not bound to any specific clock time. Instead she was following “now time”. “Now time” is decidedly different than “clock time”.
Babies don’t wake up at 6:30 AM. They wake up “now”. Infants don’t have the first bottle at 7 AM. They have it “now”. Infants, toddlers, and a lot of children follow “now time”. They want to eat when they are hungry. They do not want to hear, “we eat at six and it’s only 4:30”. Statements like that just don’t register with a four-year-old. (They don’t exactly resonates with 14-year-olds either, but teenagers can at least process the information).
The younger set has no concept of time. They live in the “NOW”. Tell a child “tomorrow”, and what he or she hears is, “NO”. Why do children ask daily “When is Santa coming?” Not until age 6 or so do they grasp the concept of hours, days, and weeks.
Back to my grandson.
He eats “now”. He sleeps “now”. He poops “now”. His mother also now lives in the “now”and finds it refreshing. My daughter, by the way, is a rocket scientist and her team sent those robots to Mars. Talk about being a slave to clock time! The mission would have flopped without precise – millisecond by millisecond — timing of the entire venture every step of the way.
Her time is now also “now time”. She eats when she is hungry — not at seven, noon, and six.
When friends call and want to drop by, she invites them. They then ask, “When?” BC (before child) they would get a clock time. Now, the answer is, “tonight”, or, “call us when you leave”.
Far too many of us live by the clock and not by the now. Are you reading this waiting for five o’clock so you can leave work? Are you counting the days until Friday? Until vacation? Until (fill in the blank)?
Take a lesson from my daughter and her new son. Live in the “now”. Enjoy each breath, each bite, each sight. As one wag put it, “Life is what happens when you’re waiting to do stuff”. (Or words to that effect). Take your happiness and pleasure in the little moments of life. The past is gone. Tomorrow may never come. We are only here and now in the here and now. Enjoy these moments.
COPYRIGHT 2010 TIMEWISE MEDICAL
