Moments in Time by Barry Hughes

One of the most random of all the random things I have stumbled upon on my walks is this calendar. It was on the sidewalk in front of the elementary school, open and ready to be filled with appointments, special days and happy notes. I wonder how in the world a calendar, and nothing else, could end up in this exact spot. I wonder how long it will remain.

It seems odd that I might pass this calendar day after day, perhaps for weeks, my life rolling by while this calendar never changes. It will seem odd, like a plot line from an old episode of The Twilight Zone, where time stops for all except for one solitary soul wandering through the world.

Events and circumstances can sometimes come together in ways which make us feel like time has stopped. This pandemic has stopped time in many ways. Trips were canceled. Celebrations, years in the making, pass by in silence. School life has been altered in ways still becoming clear. So many things by which we mark time, by which we measure our days, have disappeared that we are only half-joking when we say we can no longer keep up with the days and weeks and months.

Illness can have the same affect in our life, as can great loss and disappointment. It is unsettling when we feel adrift, when we feel that time is marching on for others, but not for me. It is an extra burden to feel that life has stopped and that what life is now is all that life will ever be.

In times like these, it is a gift to remember those moments in our life when time stopped for the best of reasons. Receiving the gift for which we longed the most as a child. That instant when we are looking into the eyes of another and realize we have fallen in love. The birth of a child. Music speaking to the depths of our hearts. Standing on a mountain top and feeling a powerful connection to both creation and Creator. Sometimes time stands still, and it is good. Those moments can see us through difficult days until we find our calendars and time starts its march once again.

Peace.