In a world driven by schedules, dates, and tangible landmarks of time, I have chosen a different rhythm to which my heart beats. I don’t mark my time with dates, holidays, faded wisdom, or karma holders. Rather, my existence sings with the colors of memories, the whispers of feelings, and the variety of emotions and senses that form my experiences of life.
Time is an inescapable linear progression of our reality. But in attempting to make sense of its relentless march, we’ve become attached to the irrelevant social construct of dates, which to most, become anchors in our existence year after year. They tether us to shared histories, common celebrations, or universal memories. As for holidays, they come with their twinkling lights and glittering tinsels, yet more often than not, they have become moments of routine celebration, rather than profound reflection.
Faded wisdom is that which is regurgitated by society, lacking the vibrancy and pulse of life’s current journey. And those karma holders? They are the bottled-up deeds and misdeeds that people say shape our destiny. But I have always seen life differently.
For me, time is a melody. I remember life episodes by the rhythm of my heartbeats during them: the wild staccato of joy, the gentle lullaby of contentment, or the deep, resonating drum of heartbreak. Not by a January 1st, or July 4th, but by how the golden sunlight danced on my skin one evening, or how the silence of snowfall felt in the depth of winter.
Society champions linearity; it loves a good beginning, middle, and end, conflict and positive resolution. But I’ve always preferred life’s unpredictable and oftentimes surprising nature, twirling with its highs and sinking with its lows, all in a times journey where life’s lessons are learned along the way. I reminisce not about the date of a moment, but the scent, the taste, the touch it held, and the emotions I felt.
Conventional wisdom is everywhere, packaged neatly in self-help books, dispensed by the hour for a fee, or found within age-old proverbs. But the wisdom I cherish is vivid and dynamic, and always morphing into something new and unexpected. It’s the knowledge gained from scars earned through struggles, from laughter shared in the most unexpected places, and from tears that have relieved the deepest pains from my soul.
Karma, for me, isn’t a ledger of deeds waiting to balance out. It’s a living, breathing essence, shaping and ever changing with every breath I take. It’s the energy that ripples out with every act, every thought, setting in motion a balance of cause and effect that is as mesmerizing as it is mysterious.
And so, while the world chronicles life by the numbers on a calendar, I instead resolve to dive deeper. I relish life in its textures, its fragrances, and its array of emotions. I no longer let my days be defined by the turn of a calendar page, but instead by the imprints they leave upon my soul.
Today, as I share these musings, it’s not the date that matters. It’s the resonance of the words, the cadence of feelings they evoke, and the shared understanding that sometimes, time’s most profound essence is not in its measure, but in its immeasurable beauty.
August 18, 2023
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