As I lay in bed to sleep last night, I heard the ticking of a clock. After a day of resisting the temptation to sleep to avoid jet lag after a long flight that got in in the morning, I was ready to crash. So, it was no surprise that I was asleep barely after I noticed a few ticks.
I woke up to a bright and sunny Saturday morning and suddenly, I heard the ticking of the clock again. A few seconds later, I went right back to sleep. No ticking sounds.
When I woke up again, the ticking of the clock resumed. I decided to do some reading while I was lying down. So, I picked up my phone and began scrolling through my feeds and reading some of the blogs I follow. I put my phone down a few minutes later and voila, the ticking sound resumed.
What just happened? The clock had always been ticking. It’s just that I’d shut it out completely when I was engrossed in my reading. What if it’s that way with all our little annoyances and life’s problems? When we actually get engrossed in something of value, perhaps we just shut all the inconsequential noise out..
I lay in absolute quiet for a few minutes. Well, quiet except for the ticking sound. I was completely conscious of it and found myself slowly getting irritated. Couldn’t the thing shut up when I wanted it to? What’s the point of the ticking anyway?
“Time!” – said a voice in my head that didn’t quite sound like me. “Time!” – I heard my voice shout as realization dawned. I finally realized the enormity of the one word that other voice had said.
I woke up ready to take the day on and do something worthwhile. I had learnt my lesson – whether I noticed it or not, the clock of life was going to continue ticking away…..
… and time, after all, is what we make it.
A Learning a Day 