Is Time Speeding Up For You As Well ?

Before you know it, the week is over.

When we were children it seemed to take for ever before that lovely old and bearded man came down the chimney ! You know, the one dressed in red and loaded with parcels. Gosh, I remember thinking that surely it cannot take this long ? At five years old, waiting for Christmas or our Birthday was an exhausting mission.

What happened to time and our perception of it. Do thoughts determine our reality ? Remember how we prayed for time to pass quicker ? New toys were needed and we wanted them sooner rather than later. Positive thinking seems to have worked...

Careful what you wish for ! Time seems to fly by at a rate of knots. It's only the rituals we have that make us see the time slipping through our lives. For me it is Thursdays. The last day in our weekly TV guide. A day to buy the new one. Each week when I go to the local shop, the same thought loops through my mind; ' Good lord, another week gone already.'

Of course the classic time ' thieves ' are our holidays. Oh, that glorious feeling when you get home that last working day before you're due on your leave. Is there anything better than contemplating all those free days ? Maybe two, three or ( in generous Europe ) five weeks of leave. Who hasn't done the mental arithmetic of how many days, hours and how much fun it will be ?

That first day behaves according to what we expect of it. It drags along and seems endless. Sleeping in, breakfasting in bed, sight seeing, shopping and still it's only lunchtime ! Even driving great distances to get there is exciting ( it is part of our holiday after all ) and done in record time.

That magic of that first day sets us up with great expectation for the rest but before we know it, the first week is over. It goes without saying that we have not done the half of what we wanted to do. The days just run out of time ! At some point you get the spoil sports who start counting the time in reverse: " Only 20 /10 /5 days left ". Regardless of how we count our leave, a snap of our fingers and it's over.

Every now and again, life likes to tease us and makes time pass in slow motion. Off the top of my head I can think of a few nerve racking events, such as making a speech or the dreaded school oral. Why is it that those dreaded moments make five minutes seem like an hour. Even awaiting your turn ( shaking in your boots ) is unbearably long. Maybe those brave volunteers, you know those ones who always put up their hand to start their oral first, were the clever ones after all ?

Is there a good way to spend our time ? Who can say, yet the old saying " Never put off for tomorrow what you can do today " is very apt and it seems just in time...

Biggi