I waited for my students to submit all their essays. It was almost 4:15 PM, the final minute of another school day.
When the clock hit 4:10PM, all of them were finished. That was their cue to start packing and taking their phones from the teacher's table drawer.
Time goes
The passing of time is more evident now that I work in a school.
Each period is marked by a ringing bell; each bell signals either a break or a new teacher entering the classroom.
A fifteen-minute break goes by quickly. Before it's over, I watch my students play cards or chomp on caramel popcorn until the brown bag is empty. A few of them lose the card game then they switch to playing magic tricks on one another.
Poetry in the classroom, 2023.
Memory ball
It's fascinating how, as we age, we can easily look back to the last few years and decades in a panoramic introspection, as if all the years happened in one blink.
All at once, the childhood, teenage years, working years, and the present are rolled into one memory ball that displays all the faces, hairstyles, and personalities we've lived in.
At Tambobong Beach with Liam in 2013
A friend or foe?
Time is an ally if you see it as something that comes to you with an open hand, granting you more of its essence.
Time is an adversary if it keeps taking away. If you feel time is passing to make your life more of a confrontation than a smooth conversation, adding only scars and nothing else.
The way we see time differs in every stage we're in but I hope the idea of it running out - we don't have it forever - goes with us everywhere, every time.
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Birthday Poem
Time passes quickly like a bike's spinning wheels
regardless of what you do, think, eat, or feel
The clock's hands will keep moving, repeatedly, and again
Time may be your worst enemy or your greatest friend
In the next few decades, I will still be here
around with more truths as death's shadow comes near
For today, I rest with what I know for sure
figuring out every step as I open more doors
-"Birthday", November 2022
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Here are some blog posts on slow-moving days:
Indulging in Unfashionable Things
On Old Nightmares, Winter Sleep, and Repairs
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My poetry books are now available for purchase in the Philippines. Click here to order.
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Star Trek Generations (Paramount Pictures, 1994)
TL;DR – "time is the fire in which we burn" vs. "time is a companion who goes with us on the journey"
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Dr. Tolian Soran to Capt. Jean-Luc Picard: "You know, there was a time when I wouldn't hurt a fly. Then the Borg came, and they showed me that if there is one constant in this whole universe, it's death. Afterwards, I began to realize that it didn't really matter. We're all going to die sometime. It's just a question of how and when. You will, too, Captain. Aren't you beginning to feel time gaining on you? It's like a predator. It's stalking you. Oh, you can try and outrun it with doctors, medicines, new technologies, but in the end, time is going to hunt you down and make the kill.
They say time is the fire in which we burn. Right now, Captain, my time is running out. We leave so many things unfinished in our lives… I know you understand."
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Capt. Jean-Luc Picard to Commander William Riker: "Someone once told me that time was a predator that stalked us all our lives. But I rather believe that time is a companion who goes with us on the journey, and reminds us to cherish every moment because they'll never come again. What we leave behind is not as important as how we lived. After all, Number One, we're only mortal."
Wow, so much wisdom here. “What we leave behind is not as important as how we lived.” This is something we all should know and remember. It’s easy to get caught up in the daily grind, leaving us unaware of how quickly time is passing and how much of it has gone by. Thank you for sharing EJ.