How Do You Measure A Year?

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I was just scrolling through the pictures on my phone and found some from our trip to Portland. I had the thought: that was something really awesome we did last year. Except we went in March. As in March 2016. Six months ago.

Moments before this I was reflecting on the fact that next week I would be headed back to Albuquerque for a writing retreat and thinking how it certainly didn’t seem like it had been a year since the last one.

There are 24 hours, 1440 minutes, 86,400 seconds in every day. The same amount of time, no matter how it’s measured. So how is it that is can feel so different? Has there been so much going on these last six months that it seems like more time must have passed (as in: surely, all that could NOT happened in just six months)? Or is the time since Albuquerque shortened by the fact I’ve kept up with friends online and feel like I just saw them? Perhaps a little of both?

Or maybe none of either.

Maybe tomorrow Portland will seem like yesterday and Albuquerque light years away. Time passes, fast or slow. And maybe it doesn’t matter how close or far away events of the past seem. Yes, it matters that we made those moments and have those memories, but I think maybe what matters more, is moving on to make the next moment. The next connection. The next adventure.

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4 thoughts on “How Do You Measure A Year?”

  1. The music by Jonathan Larson is a welcome ear-worm! “Rent” is a weekly break-out-belt-it-out musical for me, especially “Seasons of Love.” Now, because of Mary Chris Escobar’s playful and poignant insight, this rich song has even more meaning. I am definitely thinking about the meaning of time lately. Whether at work or home, Portland or Paris, Richmond or Rome, perhaps time just wants to be noticed and for those who have the gift of time to make the best of it.

    1. Yes! I love that “Rent” is on regular break-out-belt-it-out rotation for you! (Also, I love that you have such a thing as break-out-belt-it-out moments.) I do find myself thinking (sometimes worrying) about time: how fast or slow it is, where it’s going, how full the hours are or aren’t– but I do think the best we can strive to do is just be in it, notice it, as you say (well put!) for the gift it is. Thanks so much for reading and taking the time to comment!

  2. I also had the song from Rent running through my mind at this.
    I lose track of time – as in when things happened – so often. And I’m terrible at doing something with my photos so I can remember the moments properly.

    1. Oh! I’m terrible at pictures in general! Just got back from a great writer’s retreat and have been so thankful for all the pictures posted on facebook, otherwise I would have none. I think it just means we’re truly absorbed in the experiences– yes?

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