A Moment with Time

I had a moment with time. Not in time, but with time.

I was stopped at a stop sign waiting to make a turn. One car was coming from the left, and a whole bunch of cars from the right. The single car was moseying quite slowly up the highway while the long line of cars were coming downhill rather quickly. Suffice it to say, the former was moving at just the “wrong speed” – it was neither fast enough nor slow enough to allow me to safely merge into traffic.

So, I leaned back, figuring it would be a while before I could make my turn. It didn’t bother me. It could have, though. It was one of those textbook situations legitimately calling for irritation. Like the fact that the single car was traveling way below the speed limit. If it had gone a liiiittle bit faster, I could have made my turn ahead of the long train of cars.

But instead of contemplating the could-have-beens and should-have-beens, I waited patiently, completely open to whatever transpired. And what transpired was this:

Once the car from the left had passed me, I looked to the right, expecting the bulk of cars to have arrived and prevent me from crossing the highway. But much to my surprise they were still right where I had first seen them.

I know! That is impossible! (That’s why I said I had a moment with time! 😆)

I would love to dismiss this as a mistake on my part. I would love to say that I misjudged the distance or the speed of the cars. However, some similar things had happened to me before.

For example, one day I was running late for work. I know exactly how long it takes to get there. I’ve driven this route hundreds of times. It usually takes me about 15 minutes. The fastest I ever made it to work was 10 minutes – and that was during COVID with no traffic at all, speeding, and getting the parking spot closest to the office building.

That day, however, if I wanted to arrive on time, I had to get there in 8 minutes or less. As I left my driveway, I made peace with the fact that I was going to be late. There was no way I could make it in 8 minutes. And yet, when I arrived at work that day, I clocked in on time. 😃

Another time, I balanced my checkbook, ordered household items online, prepared our taxes for the accountant, made a ton of phone calls while having many coffees and bathroom trips in the process. At some point I looked at my watch and expected at least four hours to have passed. But it was less than two. I couldn’t believe it, so I checked all the clocks in the house. Every single one of them confirmed that less than two hours had passed.

They say, time flies when you’re having fun. And I know from experience, it drags when spending it with something dreadful. So, admittedly, there are moments when time seems to pass at a different speed. Typically that’s attributed to the emotional reaction to the situation.

But what about my examples above? They had nothing to do with my emotions:

Time slowed down so I could get a lot of chores done.
Time passed slower on just one side of the highway, allowing me to safely merge into traffic.
Time temporarily stood still so I could arrive at work on the dot.

That’s just …😳… I mean … 🤔… I really don’t know how to explain that … 🧐.

Brigitte K. Schneider
aka Ms. Tick Tock

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