“Whether it’s the best 
of times or the worst of 
times, it’s the only 
time we’ve got.” 
Art Buchwald

Time is a strange phenomenon. At certain points in my life, it has dragged on at an agonizingly slow pace. At other times, it has passed much too quickly. A few examples might help to illustrate this.

I’m pretty sure I was in first grade when I received an invitation to Davina Cosenza’s birthday party. Davina was one of my Saint Gabriel School classmates. If I was invited, I’m assuming she must have invited everyone in the class. The week prior to the day of the party was one of the longest weeks of my life. I was so excited about going to this event, but it seemed that the day would never arrive. Of course, it did.

When I was in high school, I remember patiently watching the clock on the classroom wall throughout much of the class period of my sophomore Latin II classes. The next period was lunch, which I believed to be a much better use of my time. As it turns out, it was.

Waiting in lines at grocery stores, the post office, the Department of Motor Vehicles, or security checkpoints at airports can also distort our experience of time, leaving us wondering if we will ever reach our destination. We usually do.

On the other hand, there have been periods in my life when an hour, a day, a year, or fifty years has passed in what seemed to be the blink of an eye. 

In August 1976, I attended a Day on the Green at the Oakland Coliseum with a good friend. The performers that day were Loggins & Messina, Linda Ronstadt, and The Eagles. Three concerts in one day! I had expected that the event would be an incredibly long day. Being there with my friend, however, changed my perception of time. Eight hours passed more quickly than I would have liked. Before I knew it, the performances were over and we were headed back to The City on BART.

My experience of parenting has also distorted time for me. There were days that seemed to drag on forever, yet I look back over the past forty years and it’s difficult to comprehend that so much time has passed so quickly. I’m grateful for the memories of those days.

In reality, every day consists of 24 hours. Every hour consists of 60 minutes. Every minute consists of 60 seconds. Time is a constant. It doesn’t change. Our perception of time, however, is significantly affected by what we’re doing, who we’re with, and the quality of the experience.

Time is a gift. Dr. Clayton Barbeau, a family therapist from San Francisco, once said, “Where you spend your time is where you spend your life.” It would be prudent for us to pause now and then to assess how we are allocating our time. Whether we perceive it as passing slowly or quickly, one thing is certain: our time here is limited. We are invited and challenged to use our gift of time wisely.