Hear the echoes and feel yourself starting to turn
Don’t know why you should feel
That there’s something to learn
These lines from Al Stewart’s 1978 platinum song and album, Time Passages, remind me to be patient during those in-between times. Most of us are in a rush to move past whatever beginnings we are encountering in our day-to-day life and to jump into our new endings (destination) immediately. When we do this, without taking the time to deeply understand and internalize the lessons we experience, we live only on the surface of life. And our life typically emulates a roller coaster ride full of highs and lows with no in-betweens.
Why are in-betweens so important? Because this is the time passage required to not just internalize the learning but—as we say in business—to add value by creating something new. Here is where the adventurous, wonder child in each of us happily explores the unknown. Too often, we steal this joy away from ourselves. Instead, let’s taste each step along the path—with the delight and awe of explorers—as though it is the destination.
As you can see in my poem below, I am reminding myself to hold this truth.
Time Passages
The sands of time trickle painstakingly
through Life’s hour glass,
a reminder to celebrate each grain of passage.
Just as these bones birthed for nine months,
so will this destination not rush into being.
Its form framed by each moment of time.
Grateful to see a threshold,
I step up and join
the march of Time that unveils truth.
12 April 2011
