Flowing with Time

At first I couldn't understand what she was saying; it took me a minute or two to really understand. She had been on the move in the city doing a lot of purchase all through the day, and was quite tired at the end of the day. But she was determined to finish the accounts before she went to bed. It might take a couple of hours for her to tally the figures, but would go to sleep only after seeing it through. At first she said, who knows if I will be alive tomorrow morning or not! If I don't, then it would create a lot of problem for others, she said laughing. Planning to do the accounts on the next day morning cannot amount to procrastination, but there was something beautiful in what she said later.

Why should I unnecessarily postpone the things that I can finish today, because tomorrow would come with its own share of toils and troubles. If I don't finish the troubles of this day, then the next day I will have to complete the works of the previous day, and may be forced to put off the day's work to the next day. In the process, the workload may keep accumulating, and there may come a time when it is beyond my capacity to wind up with all my responsibilities, and then may start the blame-game.

This is an ancient wisdom, which states, let me not postpone the things which I can do today. The secret power of the "now" is intrinsically embedded in this notion of going with the flow of the current, so that I am not stuck with unnecessary worries. But sadly, it is not at all easy for us to flow with our share of duties, commitments and responsibilities. It is because, the time that is at our disposal may seem like an endless ocean. We imagine that we are going to live for ever and ever. There is a simple way how we can train our minds to flow with the current of the day.

Let me take a sheet of paper, and write on the top, My Life Span! I will write the figure that comes to my mind, as the number of years I will live in this world. It may be 75 or 84 or even 96. Don't think too much, just put the number that first pops up in your mind. This is just a subjective figure for us to work on our life-cycle. Now let me deduct my present age. That means, I have still so many years to live. Does the years look too long, too many? Now multiply the number of years by 365; this gives the number of days I will live. If the remaining years of my life is 52, then I have 52 x 365 days to live. Let me further convert the days into hours: 52 x 365 x 24. It is here I begin to see the value of each passing hour. I may realize then that I cannot afford to waste even a single hour.

Today I would like to pause for a while and look at this day, from the moment when I first opened my eyes from sleep; it will benefit me, if I were to make a log of what I had done, minute by minute. I may be surprised to note that I had whiled away a lot of time, and have even wasted. Fortunately I don't need to pay for the time I spend, and therefore do not realize the cost of it all. If I were to do this exercise at the end of the day, then I may be able to realize that I had waste more than a few hours in useless things. Anything that is not helping me live a fuller life can be counted as a waste of time. If I do this exercise for a few days continuously, then probably I may become more conscious of the preciousness of the present, and may use it judiciously. It is then I may realize that my life span has doubled or tripled already!