The question of “Can time be lost?” came up recently in conversation. The feeling was that once you lose control over how you “spend” your time it is in essence lost. The examples given were being stuck in traffic or kept waiting for an appointment. Clearly very few of us would actively choose such options.
And yet, like it or not, we are still living those moments so why not make the most of them? Those traffic lights can be a source of stress (holding us up from whatever we are to do next) or in the words of Thich Naht Hahn an invitation to hear meditation bells – to see an opportunity to slow down for a moment and let our souls catch up.
In a way, time can no more be lost than it can be saved. All our time is lived in some form. Surely it is more a matter of how we experience each moment and equally, or perhaps more importantly, how we choose to remember them.
