Einstein had a point, time really is relative. Last week I was at the beach for a vacation with my family and time became hard to measure. On Monday the whole week stretched before us and in what seemed not more than a moment, it was Friday and almost time to go home. I could look back at each day and tell you just how we spent it , yet it was gone so quickly.  Time does not pass so quickly in a doctor’s office or when you’re waiting for vacation to actually begin.  Time is elusive.  People wish for money, or power, or things – what we really should wish for is time.  All the rest is possible with time, but completely impossible without it. You can neither buy time nor make time, and once this moment passes it is gone and cannot be retrieved.

I know I’m hardly the first person to make these observations but by writing it down perhaps I’ll value time more dearly. The closest thing we have to “saving” time are memories, the good and the bad. I have a less than perfect memory but I have stopped being concerned with remembering things, I think our lives are incorporated into our beings and memories come back to us often when we least expect them. We can no more forget our memories than we can forget ourselves.

It is freeing not to worry about memories, to live in each moment without worrying about what happened yesterday. There is no point in worrying about what will happen tomorrow, tomorrow doesn’t exist yet. Tomorrow is only a guess at best. The only option we have is to inhabit each and every moment as it happens. I know I was present for my vacation no matter how quickly time seemed to pass. It is a memory now, part of who I am, and it is a lovely piece of “forever” I get to take forward with me.