Time is free, but it is priceless……..

“Time is free, but it is priceless.    You can’t own it, but you can use it.   You can’t keep it, but you can spend it.    Once you have lost it you can never get it back.”   Harvey Mackay.

Having just celebrated another birthday, I am only too aware of the rapid movement of time and how precious every moment is.

Flowers from an English country garden.   A beautiful moment in time. When I sit observing Mother Nature’s bounty, I am reminded that all of life is fragile and temporary.    A flower in full bloom reminds me that beauty is a fleeting and enjoyable event,  however it is the full evolution of a plant that teaches us so much more.

watercolourAs Charles Darwin said – ‘It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent – it is the one that is most adaptable to change’

This is possibly one of the many reasons that I am so attracted to the hummingbird.   The Hummingbird goes into a deep torpor during the cold nights – a death like sleep where the little creature lowers its metabolic rate by as much as 95%.      As the warm sun rises, so does the metabolic rate of the hummingbird.    The tiny bird awakens from this state with enough energy reserves to see it through the first feedings of the morning.      The hummingbird’s circadian clock triggers its time of arousal, one or two hours before dawn.

watercolour/gouacheCircadian rhythms are found in human beings and most living things, responding primarily to light and darkness in the environment.       However in today’s 24/7 techno charged world where time zones are crossed without even a thought and light pollution prevails around major cities,  we humans seem to have lost track of the natural rhythms of life.     Our time clocks are out of alignment .

watercolourIs it any wonder then, that so many are feeling stress and an inability to slow down and relax?    Is it any wonder that many young children who are glued to screens, often in their bedrooms, never feel at rest?

Potting plants in a Somerset garden From Marcus Aurelius – ‘Time is a river of passing events, and strong is its current; no sooner is a thing brought to sight than it is swept by and another takes its place, and this too will be swept away.’

All of which convinces me how important it is to make the very best of every moment we have, because once that moments gone, it will never return.

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A Bientôt                           http://www.janetweightreed.co.uk