Tag Archives: time

Is Time Like A River?

Deep Thoughts and Musings, , , ,

 

Have you ever had the experience of doing something so wonderful you wanted to share it with someone.  So you took them there, did it again with them, and were disappointed with their reaction?  And/Or…..you were not able to recreate that wonderful feeling yourself?

Perhaps the spontaneity, the serendipity, of the first experience provided a magic that couldn’t be replicated.  Perhaps  your expectations were just too high.  Or, perhaps, you were just not the same person you were then.

imagesHeraclitus is quoted as saying:  “No man steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man.”

Is he saying that the water is not the same?  Is he referring to seasonal changes, higher water levels, etc.  Time has passed, the man has matured? changed?  Or was he talking about the flow of energy….. How everything has a different vibration and perhaps we are responsible for constant change and movement.

Through the years, I’ve heard quotes about how time flows like a river.  Well, I’ve observed rivers.  They ebb.  They stagnate and putrefy.  They flow.  They plunge down rapids and waterfalls.  They aerate and purify.  And…..they carry us with them.

On the other hand, I’ve been reading lately that time doesn’t exist.

Is it soup yet?

Deep Thoughts and Musings, , , , ,

I can remember coming home from school when I was a kid, bursting in the door and smelling warm, homey aromas.  Those were the days of homemade whole wheat bread.  My mouth waters just remembering slathering that bread with butter and honey.  Mom made bread at least once a week and she made soup a lot:  ham and bean if we’d had ham for Sunday dinner or minestrone or vegetable beef if we had roast beef.  You get the idea.

If she had just put it together and it hadn’t cooked long enough, she’d say “it’s not soup yet”.  So we’d smell it, want some and she’d say “it’s not soup yet”.  We’d keep asking “is it soup yet?”  Until it was.

minestrone_soup_vegetable_soup_220668

Years later, when Mom was talking about my baby sister, (really!  she was born while I was in college) she would use that descriptor.  She would relate her latest escapade or decision and by way of explanation add “she’s not soup yet”.

I shared this story with my sister-in-law recently.  It hadn’t occurred to me that her childhood experience would not be similar to mine.  We were both raised in the west and in the same religion.  But…..her mother was a single mom, a working mom.  She wasn’t there when she got home from school.  She didn’t bake homemade bread.

Then I realized there are so many different methods of making soup, some more complicated than others.  Some involve roasting bones, others opening cans.

But, once all of the ingredients are in the pot, and the simmering begins…..the goal is the same:  tender meat and veggies.  Essentially, it’s soup at that point.  But, the next day, when it’s reheated, a glorious transformation has taken place.  Time has passed, the flavors have mingled and are so much richer and more satisfying.

Life is like soup.  We struggle to bring all the right ingredients together.  We try to make the best choices.  Time passes.  We reassess the path we took.  Time passes.

Is it possible that because we’re in the pot (the trenches, so to speak), that we don’t see a transformation? But, that, indeed, one is taking place?  I believe that’s what life is:  a succession of change and transformation.  Otherwise, it’s not life!