As I review what is left of the 2023 financial year, its hard to believe we are already half way through January 2023. It doesn't seem like a year since the start of 2022. People I talk to are saying the same thing. Time seems to be qetting quicker and quicker. The question is of course - is it getting quicker or are we just trying to cram too much into the allocated allowance of 60 seconds per minute, 60 minutes per hour, 24 hours per day?
It reminds me of a poem I memorized as a child and did a quick google now to find the author to attribute it to. William Henry Davies wrote "Leisure ( What is this Life) in 1911 and I think its message is as valuable today as it was then:
What is this Life, if full of care
We have no time to stand and stare.
No time to stand beneath the boughs
And stare as long as sheep or cows.
No time to see, when woods we pass
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.
No time to see, in broad daylight
Streams full of stars , like skies at night.
No time to turn at Beauty's glance
And watch her feet, how they can dance.
No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich the smile her eyes began.
A poor life this, if full of care
We have no time to stand and stare.
How many of us spend the time to look around or to go for a walk along the river side. Are we so busy trying to get somewhere that we forget how to live? I have been thinking on this and realized that on average most of my life has been spent like this:
Hours in a week 168 - time spent related to paid employment 60hrs, time spent sleeping 49hrs, time spent related to eating/personal hygiene etc 30hrs, time spent in household duties 6hrs and that leaves just 15 hours. A generous 10% of time to live life.
And what makes it even more interesting is that when I depart this world I can't take anything with me but myself.......Makes you wonder.