Daily Archives: 01/04/2016

Discover Challenges: Perspective – Time

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Dandelion Head

In my younger years, time could not go fast enough. “Next week is Christmas” thinking of my presents. It is soon my birthday, again being full of thoughts of what I am getting. That another minute, hour, day, week and year is slipping away was not my concern. I had enough time left and of course I wanted to grow up, get married and have children, in between making the most out of life.

There we have the first problem. What is life? There are babies born and die after only a few hours, not being able to survive: they might be exceptions, but sad exceptions. They go to an early grave and have never known the meaning of time. The good years come when things start to happen. School is completed, time to travel and see the world. Other countries other times. Already on the plane you have changed the time on your clock, and hour earlier, perhaps two hours when you arrive. If you go in the other direction people are still living yesterday although you are in tomorrow: probably just a question of perspective.

My dad reached the age of 100 last year. What does time mean to him now. He is in a care home. Time for him is when his carer arrives in the morning and tells him time for breakfast. He looks forward to his breakfast. He then sits in his chair and doses off. At that age there are no times for sleeping or waking, your body tells you what the time is. Lunch time arrives, my father is happy and enjoys his food and sitting in his chair he again falls into sleep. Perhaps I might call him on the phone and he asks why I am calling so early in the morning, he has only just woken up. His perspective is more experienced than mine.

I am now approaching 70 years. Time has now become something for me to save, to look after, a precious possession because the minutes and hours are ticking away and one day the sand in the glass is no more. The Grim Reaper appears and tells me it is just a question of putting things in the right perspective and your perspective is to come with me.

I now have a ridiculous hobby of time saving. I have a programme. I know I do not need a programme, I am now a golden oldie, but organisation must be. I have finished cleaning and the bathroom is still occupied. I think I could perhaps clean a window, it only takes 5-10 minutes and that time is saved. In the meanwhile the bathroom is free I can have a shower – time saving of course. Tomorrow I have more time to spare. To spare for what, to perhaps save more time for later. I should have a bag of hours by the end of the week and empty them onto the floor, count them and use them, but in the meanwhile I have been sorting things and why – to save time of course. I will not have to waste time searching, especially as I do not have so much time  left.

I noticed today that time has increased in speed, he now has a turbo motor, perhaps he is a computer programme. The faster he reacts the better. We are no longer impatient, we no longer wait, this is super. My dandelion also waits in the field until the wind blows away the seeds, but the seeds do not run out of time. They begin a new life finding a fertile place in the ground. What a wonderful circle of life they have.

We now live in digital time. It might be the television, the radio, your mobile telephone, iPad or computer. They all have digital numbers. It is quicker and you know exactly how long you have. You can even programme other countries, I know exactly when my online colleagues are sleeping or eating lunch, be it in America, China or Russia. Life is great, you can now watch the numerical digits ticking away until there are no more.

Of course, it is all a question of putting things in the right perspective. My iPhone tells me it is now 19.53 and have have written 700 words almost. Time to stop and hope that my clock is still moving tomorrow.

Discover Challenges: Perspective – Time

Daily Prompt: Colourful

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Market Party Solothurn 2007

And another April Fools Joke from the WordPress crew. Yes, they love a good laugh, especially if they post a daily prompt and it does not work. Luckily we have the reader – I hope.

There are always colourful scenes at our local market, especially in summer: a pleasure for the camera. Personally I like colours, the more the merrier, although it seems today the normal look clothing is reduced to 50 shades of black with something as a contrast. Black is safe. Always looks good, does not stand out and you can do something with it. I always keep the black trousers for the special occasion, with a contrasting t-shirt perhaps.

Shoes are something different. In my earlier days, when my feet would fit into the shoes I liked, I would appear in all sorts of hues. Red shoes, blue, yellow and a mix, I had a thing for coloured shoes. Unfortunately the feet seem to expand with the figure. I remember a day out in Lausanne, Switzerland and was taking a walk around the shops and then I saw them in a shoe shop window. They were even reduced in price from about 200 Swiss Francs (which is expensive for shoes in my country) to 70 Swiss Francs. I pounced. They were flat but the top half had many coloured beads sewn onto the background material. I loved those shoes. They were orange, pink, green, blue – you name it they had it and they were polished beads. My feet were the crowning glory to my then hourglass figure. I no longer have these shoes, but I know I kept them for a long while until there was more background that beads and eventually threw them away.

My mum was a person for colours, sometimes it could get embarrassing when she knitted a pullover for my kids in mauve with contrasting poisonous green stripes. She was proud of her creation, but I think the kids only wore the pullover if she happened to be visiting which was not often. One of the advantages perhaps of living in another country. I remember her despair when she was knitting for my dad’s sister who was more into the demure, plain, olde wordly thing, the colour was usually grey. Mum found that it was dreary and depressing knitting with grey wool. She preferred to have some bright colours in her hands.

There was a further problem. Dad was colour blind and did not really know the difference between green and brown. On the other hand this was a good thing. She could knit him something in any colour and he was happy and thought them all wonderful creations. I am luckily not really colour blind, just have a small problem with colour identification. My No. 2 son has inherited the gift of colour blindness through me from my father. I remember the day he came home from school after their first eye test. He had to have glasses, but he also failed the colour test. You know the one where you have some indefinable dots and have to identify the number being shown. He probably saw No. 2 when everyone else saw No. 5. Apart from the fact that I had to keep an eye on the socks he was wearing there was not a big problem. Obviously wearing one brown sock and one green sock was quite peculiar. He was then at school and I was knitting his socks during the Winter months. Thank goodness my mum could not knit socks. He would probably had feet of many colours, mum was quite into stripes.

At the moment my anemones are showing quite a colourful show, together with the crocus. I quite like anemone, you never know what you get until they grow.

anemone

Daily Post: Colourful