Time

Depiction 8

The power of now

My friend Little Prince replied crisply, “Times is always now.” The smallest unit of measurable time on most watches and clocks is the second. The current moment can be pinpointed more precisely by scientists by the zeptosecond. That’s one-trillionth or one-billionth a second. It’s numerically represented as 0.000 000 000 000 000 000 001. We need to insert a decimal point after which comes 20 zeroes and then a 1.

Humans have learned to measure time with even a tinier fraction, that’s the yoctosecond that is one trillionth of a trillionth a second. Time can grow more minuscule than these measurable components. It can go infinitely small.

The human brain cannot fathom yocto and zepto seconds. As per research by neuroscientists, we can process visual stimuli in 13 milliseconds. 1 millisecond is one-thousand of a second.

I think Little Prince was referring to mindfulness while describing time. My mind runs in all directions like a galloping wild horse whereas he is serene and focused. Mindfulness is calmly putting your attention to what’s happening at the present moment with a healthy combination of logic and emotion. We peacefully accept our bodily sensations, feelings and thoughts while doing so.

I’m fondly reminded of these lines from the following poem:

To a Skylark

By Percy Bysshe Shelley - 1792-1822

We look before and after,

        And pine for what is not:

    Our sincerest laughter

        With some pain is fraught;

Our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thought.

Little Prince sent me the image of a senior citizen who seemed like Father Time to me sitting next to a cot of an asleep baby. This genial bearded man personifies time. Come year end on 31 December, you see him figuratively handing over the baton of the new year to an infant.

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https://pixabay.com/photos/baby-santa-clause-father-christmas-314746/: https://pixabay.com/photos/baby-santa-clause-father-christmas-314746/

https://pixabay.com/photos/buddhism-monk-temple-panorama-2214532/: Image by Nato Pereira from Pixabay 

https://pixabay.com/photos/yoga-pose-exercise-woman-female-3426151/: Image by No-longer-here from Pixabay