I do not believe in time.

At least, not in the way that we are taught to think of it in the west.

I don’t t believe time is a thing that moves, or passes, or runs out. I believe it’s a language we use to describe change in a vibrating universe.

Seconds, minutes, and hours are simply measurements of motion. If nothing ever moved, if nothing ever changed, there would be no way to measure anything at all. There would be no before or after. Only stillness.

So what we call time is really our way of tracking the shifting play between matter and energy. Even the scientific definition of a second is based on vibration. A second is defined by a precise number of oscillations of a cesium atom. In other words, time is not a substance. It is a count of movement, the measurement of change that occurs because of the movement.

When people say that time is running out, what they are really saying is that they don’t trust that the change they are hoping for will arrive as fast as they want it to.

This a fear which lives in their minds. It’s not reality.

Neuroscience shows us that our brains do not actually experience time as a flowing river. They construct it.

Your past is not stored like a film reel you can replay or a file you can open. Neurophysiologist, Karl Pribram, proposed that memory is stored in patterns of electrical oscillations distributed across the brain, in a way similar to how a hologram stores an image. A hologram doesn’t contain a picture in any one place. Every piece contains the whole, revealed when light hits it at the right angle.

Memory works the same way.

When you remember something, your brain does not retrieve a recording. It reconstructs a pattern. And the reconstruction has missing pieces gaps. Do you know what it fills in the gaps with? Your imagination, your beliefs about the incident, the thing you’re most focused on about it. That’s why two people experiencing the same event will remember it differently.

Memory is not a fixed archive. It is a living story that changes every time you touch it. This explains why the stories my father told about his youth grew a little with each telling. The past was not being retrieved. It was being rewritten each time he told it, not because he did that on purpose, but because that’s the way they human brain works.

And the future?

The future is a prediction your brain makes based on memory, pattern, and imagination. It doesn’t exist as a place. It exists as a story that you tell yourself based on your past and pattern recognition.

So if the past is a story and the future is a story, what remains?

Now.

No matter when you are, it’s always now. You cannot arrive in the future because when you get there it is now. And even if you could visit the past, when you arrived it would also be now.

We never leave the present. We only let our attention leave it.

Whenever we say we do not have enough time, what we are really saying is that we are trapped between memory and prediction and no longer living where our life is actually happening.

This is what Yoda was gently pointing out to Luke on Dagobah in the Stars Wars trilogy when he said, “Always in motion is the future.” Luke was looking ahead and looking behind but never where he was. He was never in the living moment where the Force could be felt.

Jesus said the same thing in different language. He said to consider the sparrows and the lilies how they don’t fret over the future. He told his followers not to worry about tomorrow. And in another place he said that whoever puts their hand to the plow and looks back is not ready for the kingdom of heaven. In other words, do not cling to the past and do not rush toward the future. If you want to know the divine, be here–now.

The present is where life is.

The only place you can ever act from is now. The more you fear you will not have enough time, the more you abandon the only moment that belongs to you. And the more you live in regret, shame, or longing for what was, the more you miss the quiet miracle of what is.

Abraham Lincoln said it is not the number of years in your life that matters, but the life you live during those years. Life is lived one day at a time, one moment at a time.

When we live rushed and anxious, we are living by the laws of scarcity. When we slow into presence, we begin to live by the principles of a deeper kingdom, a kingdom where there is no scarcity, no lack, a kingdom not bound to the illusion of time.

Thank you to my friend, Joyce, who recommended the Holographic Universe to me. It resonated before I completed the first chapter! Some books do that!

Taking My Time by Becker, Ashton and Dente

I believe there are only two basic emotions that exist in the world; LOVE and FEAR and that all others — happiness, jealousy, anger, sympathy, compassion, etc. are  manifestations of whichever one we are walking in at the moment. I believe that it is impossible to act from fear and love at the same time.

If an action is intended to harm another, either physically, emotionally, mentally, financially, socially or spiritually, it’s motivated by fear. Sometimes, it’s a fear of being wrong about something, like politics or religion. The fear is that if we are wrong about one thing, then somehow our entire universe and grasp on reality will come undone. Sometimes, it’s a fear of change, because people fear the future or that the past will repeat itself. Some people are the opposite and fear a life of boredom and sameness. Some people fear a lack of control. Others fear being controlled. Sometimes, it’s a fear of being “without,” meaning having less financially or of being poor. Sometimes people fear those of another religion, race or ethnicity. Sometimes people fear getting older while others fear dying young. Some fear they will never have a relationship while others fear commitment. Ultimately, most are afraid of death, yet everyone must face it.

Some people have been raised up in fear, believing they might not be as good as other people, so they constantly lash out at anyone who threatens their notion of being “somebody.” Maybe they get angry over something as simple as a social media post that they disagree with politically or religiously or something like that, so they lash out violently with foul language and cruel private messaging, but it’s their own insecurities and learned behaviors that come into play, not really anything you’ve done.

If someone reacts violently or hatefully to you, they are reacting out of fear. Maybe it’s a generational fear that is buried so deep in them that they don’t even know it’s there. Maybe it’s a learned behavior, instilled and ingrained, but it’s still a fear.

If an action is intended to help another, either spiritually, physically, financially, emotionally, mentally, or socially; then it is motivated by love. Love compels us to acts of faith, *true confidence, *true humility, kindness, gentleness, *forgiveness, *objectivity, patience, and selflessness. Love brings joy and laughter and fond memories. It doesn’t lash out in anger and understands that others get tired and stressed. It doesn’t hold others to impossible standards or double standards. It doesn’t act in covert contract mode, expecting something in return. Love gives for the sake of giving, not receiving and shows gratitude when it does receive. Love brings growth, joy and life to everything it touches.

Every kind, compassionate and uplifting thing is done out of love. Every unkind thing is basically, an extension of fear or just plain old habit. In some cases, it’s both. If I am secure in love, then it doesn’t matter what someone says, it shouldn’t rattle me, or at least not for very long.

Love is like sunlight and water. Where there is love there is life.

A lot of people live in fear and the ironic thing about fear is that it causes people to run away from the positive, from hope and encouragement. It causes them not to recognize what is good when they see it and to label the strongest attributes of humanity: gentleness, kindness, patience, meekness, forgiveness, mercy, etc., as weak and mistakes brutality and violence for strength.

The truth is that it takes great courage to be gentle in a world where harshness is the standard. It takes great faith to be positive in a world where we are bombarded by negativity. Love brings us that courage and faith.

I’m reminded of Gladys Aylward, a tiny English woman, who led a hundred orphaned Chinese children to safety over the mountains during a time when all of China was in the grip of fear and war and she did it with love.

Love is the greatest force on earth. It is greater than war, greater than violence. It is greater than fear and it is greater than disease. Love endures forever and nothing can ever change that.  Love is God and God is Love. If you want to know the Creator of the Universe, the One Who Never Dies, Great Spirit, Ancient of Days, the Force and Source of All, then look no further than Love.

*my definition of true confidence as opposed to cocky self-assurance is doing what you need to do with the faith that all will work out as it should and without the need to control people or outcomes. 

*objectivity–in my mind–is the ability to remove your “personal” preferences, likes and dislikes, from a situation and see it from many angles and from the perspective of others involved and make the decision based on what pathway yields the most positive or favorable outcomes for everyone involved, taking into considerations the effects on and motivations of others.

*true humility–I believe that there is such a thing as false humility where a person acts humble in order to appear to be a “good person” or “more spiritual” but in truth the act is motivated by self-interest. True humility doesn’t care who’s watching or who’s not and will often try to perform in secret without getting recognized or needing recognition. True humility doesn’t need a pat on the back or a trophy. In the same way, true humility will propel you to the stage even when self pride wants you to sit back and not make a fool of yourself. It does what needs to be done for the good of everyone involved, regardless of who does or does not get the credit. 

*forgiveness–does not mean forgetfulness. If a person has it in their nature to lie, cheat, steal or whatever, you don’t have to be blind to that fact, just accept that they are that way, keep your distance from them. Simply let go of any anger they caused you and don’t carry it or hold it against them. Caring a grudge will not punish them. However, it may add extra stress to your life and make you physically ill.