Time Speeds Up No Matter What

As a kid, I remember the adults around me constantly saying, as you get older, time speeds up. I always thought they were being dramatic. As an adult, I now completely understand what they meant.

Valentine’s Day is this week, and it feels like yesterday was New Year’s Eve. I’ve been married sixth months, and yet, my wedding day feels like it was five minutes ago.

And suddenly the Seal lyrics are in my head, “Time keeps on slipping, slipping, slipping into the future.”

It’s funny how things can have more meaning the more life you get to live. It’s crazy how time speeds up the more that your calendar gets packed, the more your relationships get stronger, the more your work gets deeper. There have always been twenty-four hours in the day, and yet, the more time keeps ticking on, the more demands we have on our time. The more it seems like we need another ten hours the day, the easier it can be to wish away our minutes, hours, and days away in the hopes of some stillness.

And while it’s easy and natural to crave stillness in a world of buzzing chaos, I wish we’d stop wishing our days away.

We create a culture where we glorify the weekend and demonize Monday, but, in doing so, we’re wishing moments away – moments that you cannot get back.

Let’s stop doing that, shall we?

If you crave the stillness amidst the chaos, take it. Take just a minute. If you need a little more adventure in the middle of your week – seek it. It’s there, I promise. If you miss the friends of yesteryear, stop thinking about a free weekend to make plans with them, actually get on the phone and call them. Pen it in. Google sync your calendars. Do whatever you have to do to make it happen – because thinking about it is just not good enough. Thinking about the friendships you want to cultivate and the places you want to visit and the things you want to do is not enough to make your thoughts a reality.

Time keeps on going no matter how tired we are, and our plates and calendars only get more full as we get older – you have to take the time to see the people and places you love.

For if you don’t take the time, you’ll never get it.