Time Expanded

Sandfly bites freckle my ankles like confetti, scabbed over and scratched at a hundred times. Odd tan lines drawn on by the strong New Zealand sun; ankles, neck, hands, and forearms, several shades darker than the rest of my body. Callouses forming on the bottoms of my feet from hours walking in my sandals. I’m sitting on a towel on the beach right outside Christchurch, sand in my toes, salt in my hair, and I’m looking down at my skin and then up at the waves in front of me.

Times slows down without a routine.

I read a quote once and it stuck with me. I came across it on Humans of New York... If you don’t know what that is, Google it. You can thank me later. Humans of New York was created by Brandon Stanton, a young, Midwestern man, who moved to New York and began photographing and interviewing random people on the streets. He talks to them, gets to know a bit of their stories, and then shares it with the world.

One subject featured on Brandon’s blog shared, “I have a theory. You ready? So, we are on earth for a finite amount of time. And time is a man-made perception. And we perceive time passing through change — seasons, aging, things like that. So, to expand our time on earth, we must incite as much change in our lives as possible.” Brandon replies, “Interesting. I haven’t heard that before.” The man responds, “That’s because I made it up!”

We’ve been in New Zealand for three weeks and it feels as though it’s been months. And I’m confused because I usually think... “Where does the time go?” A year can move past so swiftly, it’s like a breath inhaled and released, and then gone. But time is only our limited, narrow, fixed perception. What actually can expand our time here on earth?

Maybe it is change. Maybe it’s learning and growing. Maybe it’s being passionate everyday. Maybe it’s in our relationships. I don’t know. All I know is time has recently expanded for me, here in this moment, on this beach, sitting with my back to the sun, the ocean air finding its way to my tongue.

And I think that clever guy, with his made-up theory, is on to something. Something good.

Cheers,

Tera

Humans of New York Credit: www.humansofnewyork.com