I remember the times when I was little when days felt so long.  Summer vacation felt like it lasted forever.  Driving in the car for 30 minutes felt like hours.  

I remember the times when I didn’t want to go to sleep because I didn’t want life to pause.  I drifted off with hopes of fun dreams.  I only slept because of my exhaustion from playing with life.  

I remember the times when I didn’t care if I got dirty or got my hair wet at the pool.  I would make mud pies and spend so much time outside.  I would swim like a mermaid and see how long I could hold my breath.  

I remember the times where all I ever wanted to do is be with my friends.  We would make forts, play cards, listen to music, ride our bikes, write each other notes, and laugh so hard.  We would float down the ditch on our backs and look for water skippers.  

I remember the times when my mom would take care of us.  She would make us yummy food.  Take us to all our activities.  Nurse us to health with love when we were sick.  She would wake me up for school.  She would rub my head and back so softly.  

I remember the times when I used to think my parents’ bed or the couch was for gymnastics.  I would do summersaults and headstands.  I would do backbends off the edge of the bed.  I would jump on their bed or our couch like it was a trampoline.  

I now know time to go fast.  A day feels like a few hours.  I week feels like a couple days and a month sometimes feels like it blinks by.  Time does not slow down even for a second. 

I now know time to be a theif but in a bittersweet kind of way.  Time is bittersweet in the way that turns puppies into dogs and babies into men.  It’s in all the ways that make you realize how short life is.  Time makes you look in the mirror and think you look more and more like your parents or grandparents every day.  

I now know time to feel busy and rushed.  I don’t like this feeling.  I remember when time felt slow. I know that I can make it feel this way again.  It’s in moments like writing this that slow time down.  It’s in moments of ease or quiet that I feel time cease fire.  It’s in moments of peace in the moment that I feel time unclench its grasp.  

I now know that as time goes on and I am on this ride of life I may want to pause the ride in time but that is what makes life so enjoyable is because it just keeps going.  Life truly is relearning what you knew as a child.  It is remembering how to calm your nervous system and feed your soul.  It is about reclaiming the fun and joy that slows down time.  

I now know that my favorite people are my favorite because when I am with them I don’t feel time ticking away.  In fact I love being with them because I am in the moment and in the moment time doesn’t feel so bad.  It is when we dwell in the past or future that time feels heavy.  

I now know that time is a gift.  Some don’t get much time to live on this wild Earth.  Some live each day with more passion because they know this or they had to say goodbye to someone too soon.  It makes that zest for life stronger.  

Time on a clock ticks in its incessant way but time and the calender only exist because we created it for schedules and to follow the rythm of the Earth.  Making time for fun and play seems like the greatest endevor with the greatest reward.  

Time for more joy.