The finest workers in stone are not copper or steel tools, but the gentle touches of air and water working at their leisure with a liberal allowance of time.
*Henry David Thoreau
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What Jesus spoke of by "life" was not "everlasting life" but "eternal life." Sanctifying time is a way of saying time is within timelessness. Eternal speaks of a quality of Being being. We do not need more time, we need sensitivity to the Eternal, here and now. If we do not give ourselves to Eternity, relax and enjoy time, we are likely to be a captive to the illusion that there is and will never be enough time. The saints and sages are always turning our vision toward timelessness, even away from a heaven of endless duration, to Now, to Here. In some way, there is no time but this time, which is to say, Eternity, Life Eternal, or just Life.
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Harry, played by Jack Nicholson in “Something’s Gotta Give” (2003), is a 63-year-old confirmed bachelor. He has spent his life chasing money and younger women. His latest young girlfriend and he plan a tryst at her mother's beach house. While there, Harry suffers a heart attack. After leaving the hospital, Harry must stay with the mother, Erica, played by Diane Keaton, during his recovery, for he cannot travel. While together, they learn a lot about love and aging.
Harry and Erica are walking the beach together as part of Harry's rehabilitation. Though previously adversarial, both have decided to try to be civil. Each has looked up the other on the Internet to discover the other's past and accomplishments. Harry tells Erica that there are over 8,000 websites mentioning her. She is flattered, but assumes that he is exaggerating. She informs him that she looked him up on the Internet, also. Erica says: "I know you grew up in L.A., which I thought nobody did. You started your own record label at twenty-nine. Very impressive. Sold it at forty. Even more impressive. Then you started a magazine, dabbled in the Internet, and then you invested in a small record company, which you turned into the second-largest hip-hop label in the world!" Harry replies that he is exhausted just listing to her recite his life. Agreeing, Erica says, "The truth is, it goes by fast, doesn't it?" Harry, looking up, replies, "In the blink of an eye."
So, why not slow down? Take more breaks just to enjoy Life? Why not say "No" to the tyranny of time and "Yes" to the wonderment of Life? Imbibe deeply of Life. Giving yourself fully to Life, Life gives Itself fully to you.
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*Embracing the Light, Fe Langdon, Flickr
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*Lotus of the Heart is a Work of Arem Nahariim-Samadhi ~ a Hospice Chaplain, interspiritual author, writer, poet, and bicyclist. He is someone in love with Life and inviting others to that same ecstasy of Love ~ and, by the way, herein is nothing he claims as his own.
