Creating this site, a lot of fears crossed my mind. Pretty high on the list was the fact that I was committing to write every day, but what if I can’t think of anything. What if the looming specter of writer’s block descends on my shoulders? What if I open my page to start my next post, and all I see is a blank screen?

Well, although that possibility exists, it’s not a lack of ideas slowing me down right now, but this model of society. Minutes and hours, before and later, sometime or never; life divided into bit-sized chunks.

I’m just as guilty as anyone. In fact, the organized, logical side of my brain loves lists, and timelines, and schedules. There are parts of my schedule that are immutable because of societal structures. I work the same hours each day, I sleep the same hours each night. Those are fine, those are normal; those are about all the decompressed, random-access, montage side of my mind kind take.

Enter the time-slip. I come home, a plan in my head for the rest of the evening. Everything I’m going to get done, everything I’m going to accomplish, mapped out in my head. Right until I sit down.

I pick up the laptop, I’ve got some work to finish, “No worries. This shouldn’t take more than an hour.” Two hours later, I look up at the television that has been streaming my current favorite background distraction, and realize the room has got awfully dark.

Cooking. I’ve done this recipe a dozen times, it will only take me about 30 mins. An hour later, I’m staring at the pan on the stove wondering why it’s still not done.

Time has this amazing trait, it keeps moving. Time doesn’t really care if we pay attention to it or not. It stops for no one, and once it is gone it can never be found again. So, where do these time slips come from? Why, how can we simply misplace and hour of the day? I’ve got a theory. (Of course I do, everyone’s got a theory. But, hey it’s my blog)

Time doesn’t exist. Yes, the whole linear progression of cause to effect is true (most of the time), but time as a structure is a man-made concept. A day is a mid-point of darkness to the following mid-point of darkness. A year is the amount of time it takes our planet to get back to a given relative point in space. We, humanity, have created this cascading barrage of calculations, numbers, order, and blocks to divide up our time. Trying to produce order and inject standards upon the simplest concept of nature, cause to effect.

Despite how some may protest, we are products of that natural order. This is why we have schedules, why “ordering your thoughts” is an actual thing. This is why alarms, timers, reminders, and yes even the snooze button are used in our lives most every day, because we are imparting order on a process of nature.

So, what happens when we take off the reins. We stop trying to control time, and focus our minds to a task instead. Time slips.

I still want to write for at least an hour a day, but will it be the same hour each day? Probably not. Instead of trying to rein in an hour just to sit and write, what if I just sit down, put the laptop on my lap, and start typing. Let the commitments of daily life come in their own time, and I will put down the computer to give them my full attention. Then, in its own time, I come back and the words are still there, waiting for me.

Our lives have structure, and timetables, and deadlines; and there is nothing wrong with that. But in your own time; take the time. Although the passage was talking about tithe, I think the same can be said about time. “Then Jesus said, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s”

Now, I have ideas just waiting to be written: Armor, Hello My Dear, The Silent Sentinal, Holding Reset, and more. But for tonight, my time is up.