Days 87-89 – “Untouched By Time”

Trapped in a "detention study hall" on a Saturday morning in 1958 I stared at the clock. It was 11:45 a.m. I would be released at noon.

The second hand was traveling at a trackable pace. But, the minute hand was mired in permafrost.

At 11:47 I marveled at how long it had taken for the second hand to orbit twice.

The world is defined by time. The spirit cannot be touched by it.

So long as we fight time, time will trap us.

To live, we can't entirely let go of the world. Can we enter spiritual living nevertheless?

Eckhart Tolle's writing is like John O'Donohue's in that it is hard for me to avoid quoting either of them. O'Donohue touches spirituality with his poetry. Tolle offers us an analytical model to help understand (to the degree words can do this) how to live spiritually.

"Accept the present moment and find the perfection that is deeper than any form and untouched by time," Tolle writes.

This seems as important a concept as anything else I know. Yet, I find it confounding because it is, almost by definition, at odds with the way we have learned to live.

Tolle's writing on this subject is indistinguishable for me from the core of Christian thinking on surendering.

How can we free ourselves from depending on what happens outside of us for our happiness? We can become "friendly with the present moment."

In that 8th grade study hall, I fought the present moment. In my perceived discomfort, I launched a war against the clock.

By waging my battle against time, I fell into the central trap of life. I literally tried to control the most uncontrollable force in the world.

How can we befriend our moments of pain? Are we really supposed to tell suffering patients that they can appreciate their agony?

Caregivers are guides, not magicians and certainly not gods. Caregivers offer human help in a human world.

Yes, the spiritual world is untouched by time. And that world is only found through surrender to whatever happens in the moment.

On that Saturday morning in 1958, I hated the clock that told me it was only 11:47. Today's calendar tells me it's fifty four years later.

-Erie Chapman

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Categories: Reflections, Holidays, Spirituality

5 responses to “Days 87-89 – “Untouched By Time””

Karen York

March 26, 2012 at 11:28 am

I remember those big classroom clocks and the eternity it took to go through those last five minutes before lunch recess. Or the only sound in the room was the tick tick tick, as the teacher gave us a five minute pop quiz…scurrying to be sure I finished on time, the clock added additional angst. Of course, the clock didn’t care whether I was hungry or trying to aptly match the Capitols with their States. The clock just was…it just is. As you said, the spiritual world is untouched by time and can best be reached when we stop thinking about it. A person very dear to me would always say when I was fretting about having only a short time to spend with him, “but we have right now”… That was the golden reminder to live freely in the moment and to grab everything I could out of it.

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candace nagle

March 26, 2012 at 10:33 pm

Yes, time is a trickster. It goes to fast when we want it to stop and crawls when we want to move on to the next moment. Why?! It is interesting to think of the qualities of time…how our perception of it changes. I remember that classroom clock very well. The minute hand stood stock still frequently….but at least time was still ’round’ then! Now it is mostly digital and it marches along, pressing us forward in a rush, rush, rush to nowhere and everywhere simultaneously. Don’t forget ‘time is money’! Fortunately there are visits to the woods and early morning meditations where clocks are meaningless, space opens up into wide expansive moments, and we ‘have all the time in the world’. I want more of that quality of time!
For our patients who are suffering what we can give is the willingness to be present with them. If we give our full loving attention in those moments perhaps the pain can be transcended and love can prevail.

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~liz Wessel

March 27, 2012 at 8:36 am

Surrender, I haven’t, I hold on so tightly. I experience flickers of surrender in the quiet, when I am not doing and even then my mind wants to make lists. I feel so far from true surrender and just on the brink of falling into Love’s arms.
Surrender, perhaps, initially it accompanies grief; of letting go all my illusions that I have built up for so long. And willingness open to what is and to not let another moment go by without our wholehearted willingness. This my prayer today.

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marily

March 28, 2012 at 2:43 am

when feeling rushed by anyone or by myself… I will remember to become friendly with the present moment.. filling in the need

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Maria Doglio

March 29, 2012 at 2:45 pm

Erie, have you noticed that time is speeding up, that the same minute that existed when we were kids is not the same minute as now? There is a bigger picture happening her on Mother Earth and time is adjusting itself while we move along adjusting with it — moving to a higher vibration. Well, food for thought and exploration outside the box! :>
I’d like to share this quote from Shakti Gawain on the “Mirror of Life”:
“Everything in our lives reflects where we are in the process of developing integration and balance. We can use everything that happens externally as a mirror to help us see the areas within us that need healing and development. Whenever we have a problem, especially a recurring or chronic problem, it is always an arrow pointing directly to some aspect of our psyche where we need more awareness.
If we accept that life is always trying to teach us exactly what we need to learn, we can view everything that happens to us as a gift. Even experiences that are uncomfortable or painful contain within them an important key to our healing, wholeness, and prosperity.
We may have difficulty understanding what the mirror of life is trying to show us, but if we sincerely ask for the learning and the gift in every experience, it will be revealed to us one way or another.”

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