Switching Time
I was feeling a little off when I woke up this morning. At first I wasn’t sure why but then I remembered that we had set the clocks forward an hour the night before, which meant I was running on an hour less sleep than usual. Of course, I knew it wasn’t affecting time at all. It was just forcing my body into a new schedule again just as it had last fall.
It’s become a lot harder to do this as I’ve gotten older. My body doesn’t seem to enjoy having any changes sprung on it. It was already getting achier as it aged and forcing it up an hour early didn’t make it any easier. Finally, I got up and stumbled into the bathroom. I turned on the light and blinked back the harshness of it. After my eyeballs adjusted to it I glanced in the mirror and wondered who this old man was staring back at me. He looked so tired. His hair was thin on the top and gray on the sides. His forehead wrinkles and laugh lines were permanently etched into his face. He had a lot of age spots from being out in the sun for over 50 years. His beard was scraggly and looked like someone had spilled salt and pepper on his face at the same time. When he stretched his back popped and his eyes bulged. His aging face and aching body seemed strange to the soul living inside of them. That soul was eternal, vibrant, and forever young. And when I looked in the mirror I could still see it there, hiding behind the wrinkles but shining through the eyes. And I knew that was who I really am.
Time truly is a funny thing. We can’t switch it. We can’t change it. It flows ever onward and carries our bodies along with it. Yet it is forever foreign to us. We are Children of God. We are beings of eternity. We are only here for a temporary time and the souls inside of us know this. Maybe we should worry less about our clocks and our bodies then. Maybe we should focus instead on our souls and all the love we can share. These are the things that last forever.
