On Time

One of the changes between the rhythm of career and post-career life is the perception of time. Even before I entered the post-career phase of my life, I was aware that I was using the clock to control too much of the way I was living; on the weekend I would intentionally not wear a watch - seeking to loosen the rigor of waking to an alarm, eating when it was the right time rather than when I was hungry, and using the time to decide I was taking too much doing what I was doing.

Now - I go to sleep when I am tired and wake up 7-8 hours later - usually to bird song; it is refreshing to wake up in sync with the day beginning for the world outdoors and at the point of lightest sleep; what a joy to slid gently from sleep to wakefulness. It happens about the same time every day; the little bit of variation is very comfortable. It is so much better without a jarring sound that happened too frequently at the wrong part of my sleep cycle.

These days when I have an appointment at a certain time, I often set a timer rather than rely on my keeping track of what time it is. That is quite a change from the attention to time I had during my career when there were so many elements that were linked to a time synchronized with actions of other people. I wore a watch and often had a clock in my office too. Reminders came up on the computer. I even had a clock in my home office; I didn’t hang it again after we had the house painted.

There are times that I have to check the date and time because I lose track. A lot of what I enjoy doing now has more of a daily or weekly rhythm rather than being pegged to a more exact time. For example - I do grocery shopping once a week and a blog post daily. Now that I have my garden started, there are some daily garden chores as well.

Historically, life 300 years ago was a lot like this for everyone. There were church bells that caused some synchronization of activity….but otherwise the rhythm of days (rather than hours) was dominant. It was important to predict the seasonal changes so that crops could be planted at the right time. The implication is that the attention to time in modern culture has increased the frequency that we think in short time (hourly) frames. We start training early in our lives with bells and topic changes happening quite frequently throughout our school years.

By creating habits that are not so focused on the exact time, I am now teaching myself the older rhythm….savoring the rhythms of the planet.