TIME: Part 1 - It's Past... Time

Time is a funny thing, if you think cruel can be funny.  Time can lag on forever, yet at the same time speed past you.  It can stop, it can proceed in slow motion, it can disappear leaving us to "where did the time go" hide-and-seek games we play with it. It can deceive us and elude us. Time has no respect for us wanting more (e.g., "I wish I had more time to spend with you")... or less for that matter (e.g., "How much more time do I have to spend doing this?").  Time taunts and teases, comes and goes, passes and stands still, someTIMEs all at once.

On occasion we get a glimpse of  time present, past or a future past de ja vue, and if we sit quietly, it will sit...just beyond our reach, and allow us to breathe.  And in those moments of breathing, we have opportunity to reflect; to imagine; to propose all of the things we couldn't when time wouldn't stand still.  I stumbled across a picture today. A moment frozen in time itself; cocooned in minutes, hours, days, wishes and memories, i-think-so's, and what if's... all of those things that Time carries in its pocket.

The caption is dated Oct. 2012, E's 10th birthday. It should have said her 11th ... but this is proof how time flies.. and even more so if 11 months have passed before the picture is posted.  Time is liquid and slimy; rarely concrete. Except perhaps in those moments frozen in Time, where we can remember conscientiously commanding time to stop by releasing the shutter. Even then we are teased as the feelings... at that very second... can taunt us again and again; and for that, we are painfully thankful.

It doesn't matter whether it should have been 10 or 11... because soon it will be 12.  What matters is.... that the ball was orange and that E was smiling. Neither of which has anything to do with the arrogance of Time. But has everything to do with missing the 10, 11, almost 12 year old girl young lady.