May 19, 2007

Tempus does not fugit

“And then, suddenly, I realized it meant nothing. Tempus did not fugit. In a long and healthy life, which is what most of us have, there is plenty of time. There is time to sit on a houseboat for a month reading novels. There is time learn another language. There is travel time and there is stay-at-home time. Shallow time and fallow time. There is time in which we are politically involved and other times when we are wilfully unengaged. We will have good years and bad years, and there will be time for both. Every moment will not be filled with accomplishment; we would explode if we tied ourselves to such a regimen. Time was not our enemy if we kept it on a loose string, allowing for rest, emptiness, reassessment, art and love. This was not a mountain we were climbing; it was closer to being a novel with a series of chapters”- Carol Shields, “Afterword” from Dropped Threads

I love this. Though Shields’ own tragically shortened life gives this a sad resonance, I think it still stands. Though there is never enough time, at the same time life is long. Every day is bursting with hours, and weeks with days. That you make the time you have enough. And I love that idea– if I only had a houseboat.