Beginnings and Endings Make Time Slow Down

Falling into routine is easy.

Blinking away months, even years, is a common feeling.

It isn’t until we start or end chapters of our lives that we feel connected to the passage of time. Take the beginning versus end of the school year, for example.

Starting a semester of school always feels like a whole lifetime is stretched out before us, being in the thick of finals make school days seem to last forever, and turning in the last assignment, finally free for the summer, makes us wonder where time went? As if the entire semester flew by right before our eyes.

Starting new chapters is sometimes the only opportunity we utilize to become aware of the passage of time; finishing school, graduation, starting a new job, moving, getting married, having a child, celebrating anniversaries, having a birthday, etc.

While these larger events act as landmarks on our journeys in life, we are still traveling through time at the same speed we did the day before, and at the same speed we will the day after.

Nothing has changed and yet the feeling of time standing still or the mere awareness of just how much time has passed since the beginning of the closing chapter becomes profoundly clear, an overwhelming feeling that promotes reflection into the past, present and future with gratitude and love.

The passage of time is truly in the palm of our hands. All we know for certain is the present moment, the past is just a collection of the present moments that we have experienced, the future is the assumption that we will continue to experience another present moment as soon as the previous one passes…

This feeling awakens us to the immediate appreciation for how quickly time has passed as we close a chapter and open a new one.

With this in mind, it is incredible to note that we have the opportunity to open a new chapter whenever we want, bringing forth feelings of appreciation, gratitude and awareness for the passage and unfolding of our lives along with it!

Okay, but why start this practice?

The euphoric and nostalgic elixir of feelings we get on ‘landmark days’ brings us back to gratitude and love, whether it be for ourselves, those in the chapter we are closing or for the chapter we are about to open, those baseline feelings always surface.

This is the key! The love and gratitude reminds us to simply appreciate ourselves and our lives in whatever way we do.

Every passing moment is making up the chapter we are currently in and will surely end with us wondering where time went, even for the moments that feel empty in the time we move through them.

With the awareness and knowledge of this guaranteed beautiful ending, we are presented with the opportunity to move through each moment with the same elevated love and gratitude we are guaranteed to feel in the future when this current chapter comes to a close, with the reflection on the moments that are passing by us right now.