Time

“Nothing is a waste of time if you use the experience wisely.” – Auguste Rodin

I received an email this morning from one of the attorneys in my office. The caption was in bold type: URGENT!! Her writing in the email seemed somewhat frantic. “I need this done today!!” I called her and reassured her that it would in fact, get done today. But then I asked her what time it was that she needed the project completed and she states somewhat nonchalantly that she was working from home and that although it is an urgent matter, that I could send it to her via U.S. Postal Service. “You don’t what me to overnight it?” “No, that won’t be necessary.” I was left somewhat confused by that. She sends me a frantic email about the urgency of a project yet wants it to get to her in the slowest manner possible. *Scratching head*

It seems that we, this city in particular, are obsessed with time. New Yorkers seem to be on a perpetual deadline. The phrase that is standard issue around here is that “this needs to get done yesterday!!” What is it about keeping time? It’s like any mode of time keeping is as much a part of our daily lives as our morning coffee. Watches are as much a part of our dress as our socks or our shoes. Have we been programmed into thinking that walking out of the house without a watch is a city dweller’s sin? It’s like walking out without our purse or our keys –- we sometimes feel naked without it!

New York is known as “The City That Never Sleeps”. With that said, I’m left with the question, why is it that the people of this sleepless metropolis always look so fatigued and tired? The answer is simple. Because there isn’t any appreciation and credence given to the opportunity to be still.
There is a great benefit in waiting –- in being still. Even as kids, we wanted to rush through what we knew being a child to be. I know I’m not the only one who can recall being a little kid saying that I couldn’t wait to grow up. As if the accumulation of years made one more special or loved than they were at that very moment in their lives. But one may find that their greatest joys may have been in all the yesterdays that were charged through or piddled away to look in the face of a distressing or sorrowful today.

So I say, look around you. Take in the world. Take it in your hands and look at it. Examine all that it is. Appreciate every smile and every kind word that comes your way as that smile or kind word is a moment in time that may never be repeated!

I took the time to be still today. In the rush to get this “urgent” matter taken care of, I decided that I wanted to take a moment for myself. To that end, I got off the train that I was taking to court, sat on a bench at 14th Street-Union Square and finished the coffee and doughnut that I bought as a substitute for the real breakfast that I don’t often deprive myself of. And it was in that moment that time and space melted away and all that was left was me. Me, an old-fashioned doughnut and a hot cup of coffee.

"The Persistence of Memory", Salvator Dali, 1931. One of my absolute favorite paintings. The surrealistic notions of this piece are MAGNIFYING!! I find that I get lost in all forms of art when visiting MoMA. I suggest that everyone take in some culture there!