Trina Machacek: Modern times

It seems when something bad happens, time drags by and sometimes time even seems to stop. But when something wonderfully good happens, the time flies by. For instance ...

We had company visit and they brought their little baby. The time we spent with our friends zoomed by. But during that same week we were waiting to go to a doctor’s appointment we were anxious for and the time just drug by, like cold molasses coming out of a bottle. How can that be when both things were happening at the same time? It’s a time warp thing. Not saying I’m warped!

There’s also a new song out that relates to wanting to be older until you’re older, then when you’re that older person you want to be younger. Seems we’re never satisfied. But that is, in actuality, a good thing. I mean really, if you find you’re satisfied you never reach for more, want to be more, be better, and achieve everything your little heart desires. But, my friends, be careful what you wish for.

As a kid I hope you took the time to wish upon a star. You know, “Star light, star bright ...” Well, of course I wished upon a star once or twice in my youth. Gee, I sure hope I wished for something good and it came true, for as time has gone by I don’t recall when or what those wishes were.

It probably is a good thing we don’t remember stuff like that from our youth. It might be kind of embarrassing to see a grown-up get a wish of unlimited chocolate chip cookies or, well, I have skidded off the wish list, haven’t I?

Have you ever watched a clock click off seconds or minutes as you sit in a waiting room? Or as you wait for the timer on the oven go beep, beep, beep, annoying on its own, but watching the time go by you realize those seconds or minutes were here and are now gone and never will be back? Your life has cashed in that time, those breaths you took for granted are gone forever. How eye opening can that be? But what are you going to do about it?

As much as we all desire to make our mark in life, there’s just no possible way to make every second of every minute of every hour of every day count for something important. Important enough to make that mark we desire to make. But I have an idea. Well, of course I do!

Spend it wisely. I used to bemoan to myself, oh, you don’t want to bemoan out loud — people tend to gather the white coats if you bemoan out loud. Anyway. I couldn’t wrap my head around the fact one second was gone and then another and another and nothing spectacular happened. How sad is it that time goes by without any recognition of its passing. But it has in the past, does in the present and will in the future. That’s just the way of the world and it’s pretty cool.

Finally, with our time, something happens we don’t have to do anything about. We don’t vote it in or out. We don’t need a committee to regulate it. We aren’t going to stop it no matter what we do or don’t do. It just goes and goes.

Time doesn’t wait for payday to come around. Time isn’t working toward retirement, thank goodness, or we would all be out of time. Although it’s precious, time doesn’t care what the price of gold is or what its resale value will be after depreciation. Time is just pretty unflappable no matter what we think, say or do about it, do to it, do or with it.

Time doesn’t need parents, teachers, siblings, coworkers or bosses. Time never needs to be fixed or fiddled with like an old jalopy. Time doesn’t need to be re-done, like a really bad perm you got from a hair dresser and you left the salon looking like you just stuck you finger in a light socket!

So, what of this time we have? Time on our hands. Time to spare. Time after time. There are some things about time I think we hopefully can all agree on. Time is precious. Time heals. Time in its own time tells all. Some two thousand years ago was a time of uncertainty and also hope. Those were the times, huh? Now, today in modern times, even though an almost enumerable amount of seconds have clicked away in the last 2,000 years, we still have the time to meet and greet and love and laugh. And go back and get that perm redone. It wasn’t a pretty sight no matter how much time I spent brushing it out!

Until next time!

Trina lives in Eureka, Nevada. Share with her at itybytrina@yahoo.com. Really!