{"id":2826,"date":"2013-12-27T05:50:14","date_gmt":"2013-12-27T13:50:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/michellejolin.com\/wordpress\/?p=2826"},"modified":"2013-12-27T05:46:36","modified_gmt":"2013-12-27T13:46:36","slug":"time-and-a-prayer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/michellejolin.com\/?p=2826","title":{"rendered":"Time and a prayer"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tired of lying in the sunshine staying home to watch the rain
\nYou are young and life is long and there is time to kill today
\nAnd then one day you find ten years have got behind you
\nNo one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun
\n–Pink Floyd\/Time<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Have you ever noticed how flexible time is?<\/p>\n

In the third grade, the time between 0800 and recess stretches practically for a month and the period between the first day of school and Christmas might as well be infinite. By the time you’re fifty, a whole decade can fly by without being noticed. <\/p>\n

Time doesn’t change. We do. <\/p>\n

I think some of it is just because of proportions.
\nThe length time is longer compared to your age if you are 8 than if you are 80..I could figure out if the relationship is directly proportional to age as a percentage of elapsed lifetime, but it would involve math. I am not required to do math my blog. Also, I am severely challenged in the math area. If anyone who reads this is mathematically inclined, please let me know how the math works out and I can post an update. <\/p>\n

It isn’t all proportional, though. There are things that make time seem to fluctuate even once you’re an adult. <\/p>\n

Being bored makes time stretch out, or so I seem to remember. I don’t get bored very often. There are too many interesting things to do, even if you are as lazy and disinclined to leave the house as I am. If you don’t read, well, good for you. You may be able to enjoy some good long, slow stretches of time even when you are all grown up. If you read? You’ll always have something to do. You hardly ever hear a reader use the phrase “I’m bored.” Unless. Well. Sometimes we do run out of things to read. It’s terrifying.<\/p>\n

Anything unpleasant is going to stretch time right out. Dental work? Sitting in traffic in August when the AC doesn’t work in your car? Anything involving waiting when they don’t let you do anything to keep your mind occupied. Any amount of time spent with people you don’t like. Time, I am guessing, does not fly in prisons.<\/p>\n

Being sick. I think this has two causes–boredom and unpleasantness. When you’re sick, it’s often hard to concentrate on anything, which makes a lot of hobbies hard to engage in. Being in a bad mood can also make time lag. That is another one of those things I don’t suffer from very often, thankfully.<\/p>\n

Super drunk? You may find yourself with chunks of time that are missing entirely. And some brain cells. Possibly some hunks of self respect and dignity.<\/p>\n

So, you can slow things way the fuck down by being bored and pissed off. Or just pissed. Is that the only option though? <\/p>\n

Just noticing what’s going on around you can slow things down a little bit. Count that cute baby’s adorable little teef. Notice how good he smells when you blow raspberries on his tummy. It will be wonderful. It will still go by pretty fast. Maybe not quite as fast as it would have if you hadn’t stopped to smell the baby though.<\/p>\n

And even if it doesn’t slow time down even a little, you’ll have gotten to enjoy new baby smell.<\/p>\n

That’s always a very good thing.<\/p>\n

It also works on a lot of other things. <\/p>\n

Stopping and just enjoying the way the wind feels in your hair, or the sun on your skin. The way someone’s neck smells. A cup of coffee.<\/p>\n

The world is full of tiny little things that we can enjoy. We just have to stop and pay attention.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tired of lying in the sunshine staying home to watch the rain You are young and life is long and there is time to kill today And then one day you find ten years have got behind you No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun –Pink Floyd\/Time Have you ever … Continue reading Time and a prayer<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2826","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-words"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7lr3R-JA","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":7575,"url":"https:\/\/michellejolin.com\/?p=7575","url_meta":{"origin":2826,"position":0},"title":"Posts galore","author":"Michelle","date":"September 18, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"I was looking at my blog stats this morning and noticed this: 500 posts. I knew I had blathered out over 200,000 words, which is a tremendous number, but somehow 500 is a number that actually sort of sinks in. 500 posts since (essentially) mid-July of last year. I am\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Words"","block_context":{"text":"Words","link":"https:\/\/michellejolin.com\/?cat=7"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/michellejolin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/IMG_1711.png?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/michellejolin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/IMG_1711.png?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/michellejolin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/IMG_1711.png?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/michellejolin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/IMG_1711.png?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/michellejolin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/IMG_1711.png?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":10072,"url":"https:\/\/michellejolin.com\/?p=10072","url_meta":{"origin":2826,"position":1},"title":"Seriously? Prove I am human?","author":"Michelle","date":"May 21, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"C'mon. I know I can be a little odd, but I shouldn't have to demonstrate my humanity by doing math.\u00a0 For one thing, it's math. Simple math, granted, but I don't want logging in to write a post to involve counting on my fingers.\u00a0 I'd really prefer to demonstrate my\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Random thoughts"","block_context":{"text":"Random thoughts","link":"https:\/\/michellejolin.com\/?cat=20"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1876,"url":"https:\/\/michellejolin.com\/?p=1876","url_meta":{"origin":2826,"position":2},"title":"Mind the gender gap","author":"Michelle","date":"November 4, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"I used to be the bright one Smart as a whip Funny how you slip so far when Teachers don't keep track of it --The Dresden Dolls\/Perfect Fit \u00a0 Back in the olden days, as I have mentioned before, I used to be a Smart Girl. I loved school in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Words"","block_context":{"text":"Words","link":"https:\/\/michellejolin.com\/?cat=7"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9666,"url":"https:\/\/michellejolin.com\/?p=9666","url_meta":{"origin":2826,"position":3},"title":"How to tell if someone is smart","author":"Michelle","date":"April 2, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"While updating a friend on the status of my online dating situation, I mentioned that I'd had a particularly good time with one guy because he was so smart. He's well read, knows about a lot of different topics, is fun to talk to, has a great sense of humor\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Words"","block_context":{"text":"Words","link":"https:\/\/michellejolin.com\/?cat=7"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10654,"url":"https:\/\/michellejolin.com\/?p=10654","url_meta":{"origin":2826,"position":4},"title":"Slowing down time\u00a0","author":"Michelle","date":"February 27, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Time keeps on slippin', slippin', slippin' Into the future --Steve Miller Band Time is a slippery concept, especially if you consider quantum physics. Which, to be clear, I am not equipped to do. It doesn't take an Einstein to understand that time is relative, all it takes is memory. Think\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Random thoughts"","block_context":{"text":"Random thoughts","link":"https:\/\/michellejolin.com\/?cat=20"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2045,"url":"https:\/\/michellejolin.com\/?p=2045","url_meta":{"origin":2826,"position":5},"title":"Autumn leaves blow by my window","author":"Michelle","date":"October 23, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Shadows grow so long before my eyes And they're moving across the page --Peter Frampton\/Baby, I Love Your Way \u00a0 I can't speak to what happens with a serious illness, thankfully, but on the rare occasions when I spend a few days of couch time, I find that time slows\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Words"","block_context":{"text":"Words","link":"https:\/\/michellejolin.com\/?cat=7"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/michellejolin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/1392965_10202239549691193_1063092677_o.jpg?fit=1200%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/michellejolin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/1392965_10202239549691193_1063092677_o.jpg?fit=1200%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/michellejolin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/1392965_10202239549691193_1063092677_o.jpg?fit=1200%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/michellejolin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/1392965_10202239549691193_1063092677_o.jpg?fit=1200%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/michellejolin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/1392965_10202239549691193_1063092677_o.jpg?fit=1200%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/michellejolin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2826","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/michellejolin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/michellejolin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michellejolin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michellejolin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2826"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/michellejolin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2826\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/michellejolin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2826"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michellejolin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2826"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michellejolin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2826"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}