The importance of time is at its most obvious at births and deaths. A small, new baby has all of its vast time ahead of it, and a new child will also need large amounts of your time. When someone has died sharing you time with that person is no longer possible. At such moments of realisation, thoughts about your own allocated time and how you spend it can become both sombre and very personal.Our everyday life is filled with events, people and places. Now and then we claim to live for the present, or at least want to strive to live in the present. But unless you know exactly what you are going to do tomorrow, next week, next month, next year your grip on the present can become weak to the point of invisibility. A modicum of expectation is essential for living in the present. Then, now and later are pivotal concepts to movements within life.
Each moment comes and goes, and only at the time of your choosing will or can you attach a signifigance. The smell, after rain in a dusty summer street, the distant sound of a train as it approaches the station to bring you to the city, the flock of birds arriving for the winter tired and glad to land. The smiles, the words, the fun the sad times - each moment that you have shared has defined you, not by what you are going to do or what you have, but by what you are because of these valuable moments. Memories are formed in the present, in your time.
