Time

Do you also feel like the day doesn’t have enough hours? Does it happen to you that you look back into something that happened a couple of years ago and you feel like it happened an eternity ago and at the same time it was yesterday?

This week I have been thinking about time. Nothing reminds you of how fast time is passing by, like having a toddler at home. Dani is growing at an exponential rate. I asked ChatGPT how tall would Dani be if she kept on growing at the same rate she has in the 16 months she’s been alive… and by the time she is 15 she would be 3.8 meters tall… and probably speak 40 languages, because she speaks more and more every day. So, with that in mind, imagine how time feels like when you see picture of a few weeks back and you see a different kid than the one you have today. This makes me feel a cocktail of emotions. I feel anxious that time is passing by so fast, and that I am so busy all the time that I fear I am not appreciating enough the present moment. It makes me feel grateful I am able to see my daughter grow and develop and that I am an active part of that development. It makes me feel frustrated by the fact that if I want to pursue my personal and professional goals, I need to work to make money and work to build my dreams and that takes away time I could be spending with Dani. It is a weird feeling of resignation or surrender to how things are and make the most of the current situation. In perpetual exhaustion haha.

In today’s world that moves so damn fast, and where we are hyperconnected to everything and everywhere, it is an act of rebellion to slow down. We were never supposed to have access to all the information that has been created over centuries and centuries. Much less access to what people across the globe are thinking and creating in real time. We were supposed to live in small villages, in a community, supporting each other and being exposed only to the influence of our own community. So, if you feel disconnected and overstimulated, well it is because you are.

Today’s world thrives by shortening our attention span and keeping us less able to focus and make important decisions. That, sadly, keeps people manipulable. I was talking to my husband about how some music albums from the late 80’s and early 90’s I remember had a storyline built in the order of the songs. How artist used and extra layer of communication in the complexity of their albums. And he pointed at how people consume music in a much different way. Streaming isolated songs, songs are rarely complex in their lyrics, many they just repeat the same words over and over, and pretty much all new songs are between 2 and 3 minutes long. I remember we used to say that the average song length in my youth was 5 minutes. And some more artistic songs were around 8 minutes like Bohemian Rhapsody. So that is just an example of how people nowadays only pay attention to things if they are no longer than 3 minutes.

All this is just to say that we are generationally changed with all this global connectivity and social media, to have very short attention spans. Ok, so now add to that fact, that by being a mother or a primary caregiver of a child, you have to have eyes on them all the time because they are a bit suicidal haha. So if you have to also get some things done (like a normal human being) you are jumping from cooking, or typing, or anything else, to supervising and replying to a kid , around 8 times per minute. Lately I feel my brain is frying.

So, with at this system we live in, constantly being bombarded with information, new things to do, try, take care off…. well of course time is never enough!

I am soon to turn 40 and it seems insane to me I am almost 40 hahaha. When i was a kid, a 40 year old look ancient to me, and I thought that for sure they had all the sh*t figure out. Well I still feel so young, i feel cheerful and curious like when I was a teenager, only with more refined tastes (most of the time) and with much less time. One thing if sure, I don’t have all my sh*t figured out haha. But it is true the body is not the same. Now I could never party like I did in my 20’s, neither would I, as now I know how bad those amounts of alcohol are for my body, and how much I need my sleep haha… but also, before, I could just get fixated with workouts, and get super fit in a matter of 1-2 months. Now, besides not having enough time to go to the gym so much, I do not see much results in the appearance of my body. However, I still feel them. I do feel stronger, more toned, mobile and resistant. And that is why I keep taking care of my body with exercise, healthy food and as much sleep as I can (even though it has not been enough is almost 2 years), because even if time is passing by so fast… the quality of the time that I have in this world depends on how healthy and resilient my body is.

Sadly, slowing down and reclaiming time for yourself, to recalibrate and maybe get back in touch with what truly matters… is a privilege nowadays. As this world is obsessed with productivity, many people cannot afford to live in a decent way if they don’t work as much as they do. And as a parent, working and caring for your kids many times takes all the available time in the day. Especially if you live abroad and/or do not have any support system.

So, if you have the possibility and the privilege to reclaim a bit of time for yourself, 10-15 minutes a day, or a couple of hours a week… don’t waste it. Time is passing by fast, but your body and heath have memory, and sooner or later will charge you for the neglect. Be rebellious, use your critical thinking to select what you TRULY need, not only what you want.

I rambled a bit this time, as I wrote this in over 3 different days. I aim to publish every Friday, but these days have been too heavy and I just haven’t had enough time or energy at the end of the day. So thank you for bearing with me in this belated post, and expect next one on Friday! 🙂

Sending you love and strength for a fantastic week ahead.

Vero

P.S. I haven’t figured out the way to add comments to the blog yet. And i know it is hard to read on mobile version… so apologies for that… new things are coming and I will fix that, but like all good things, they take a bit of time haha. Thanks for being here none the less ♥