Aging Capriciously

I give you Tree Time! (I found the following quote on a box of Celestial Seasoning Time)

“I planted a tree next to the first house I owned, just a skinny runt of a tree….But when I went back there 40 years later, I couldn’t believe my eyes. The tree was towering over the house, the queen of the neighborhood. In the meantime, I’d become an old man. This was the first time, I ever really believed that the world will go on just fine when I’m gone…Ever since then, I’ve been living in tree time.”

There is no further explanation as to what is meant by “tree time” but the meaning seems pretty clear. The young man had aged and the tree had grown into its maturity. The tree would go on living long after the old man had passed away. The old man realized that life would go on long after he had passed away. Perhaps to the tree nothing in the world had really changed very much.

I once remember seeing a Red Wood tree that had been sliced open and a series of events had been inscribed on the various rings of the tree. You could look at most of history in the rings of a Redwood tree. Redwood trees can live up to 2000 years old. A single tree captures in a simple non-technological presentation (as opposed to a PowerPoint presentation) one half of the history of modern humanity on a slice of wood. It is hard to envision a simpler or more powerfully evocative depiction of history. The tree has been there and seen it all. Where human time is frantic, noisy, urgent and chaotic, tree time is solid, steadfast, peaceful and quiet. Tree time simply is without judging or reacting. While we all love flowers and the colors they manifest, can you really think of anything more beautiful or simpler than a tree?

What if we all faced life like a tree? What if we spent our time each day as tree time? How would our perspectives on life change if we thought and behaved in tree time rather than in human time? Would we still be as frantic and rushed? Would you still think that what you were doing was so important that nothing else mattered?

“Are we there yet?” The movie Shrek was so popular that it has immortalized this line: “Are we there yet.” Every parent and child can identify with the phrase. The movie was very interesting in that people of all ages enjoyed it. We have all been on a long trip and perhaps not very far into it when we hear a young one say “are we there yet?” This phrase illuminates the difference in time perception between the old and the young. A year is a short time for an older person and indeed, they often seem to go by in a blur. For a young child, an hour seems like a long time and they become quite restless and bored very quickly. How often have you heard an older person wail: “I’m bored?” Well, maybe too often for some of you.

We took our one year old grandson on a trip with us to Korea a number of years ago. The trip was a constant effort (much fun though) to entertain Sam and keep him from being bored. You know how one year olds get when they are bored. It was also a constant effort to keep him happy and occupied. I will say that many other passengers and much of the crew helped out. Sam was a hyperactive one year old who seemed to never tire from wanting attention or help in exploring the plane and all of its occupants. I have been on many overseas trips and most of us “old” folks just sit and patiently wait for the plane to land. It might be 26 hours but we read, write, nap and somehow pass the time. I don’t think it ever occurs to us that we are bored, although we might wonder when we “will be there.” I think it is fun to watch the little plane fly across the computer screen as I get closer to my destination.

Boredom seems to be a condition of youth. As we age, the weeks start to fly by. Then the months fly by and finally the years by. Older people are too busy to be bored. When you are older, who has time to be bored? Boredom would be a luxury for some of us now. When was the last time you were bored? Do you ever have time to be bored? When did you outgrow boredom?

Now it’s time to create the time line of your dreams. This is a fantasy time line or the time line of your wildest dreams. You can let your imagination have free rein here. All you have to do is create the time line that you would have wanted, if you could have had your wildest dreams come true. What would be the greatest moments in your life if you could have this fantasy time line? Not just one moment, but an entire life of them. You can pick any events or situations that you would desire. It may be hard to conceive of such a time line since it forces us to really stretch our minds. Doing this exercise (creating an entire life that would perhaps be very different than the one we did live) forces us to ask some tough questions about the life we are living.

Why did we not live the time line that we could dream of? Perhaps you did not really dream enough or perhaps you did not really risk enough. I see so many people who do not think they have the power to make their dreams become reality. Many of us watch these fantasy TV shows and live vicariously through others, never thinking that we could be living a dream life if we had really believed it was possible. Now, of course not everything is possible for everyone. However, the world shows us that our limits are usually far above our aspirations and most people under-strive rather than over-strive.

However, if you want to change your dreams into reality, they must first become goals. What makes dreams into goals? Dreams become goals when you have a plan. A plan allocates the time and resources and is the pathway to reality. Your dreams are in the sky, reality is on the earth. If you want to attain reality, you must put resources and commitment into a concrete plan. Only then will your dreams become real.

The good story is that if you are reading this your life is not over. You still have time to attain many if not most of your dreams. Starting today, starting right now, you can create the time line that you want for the rest of your life and start living it. Have you started? If not, what is standing in your way? What would it take to remove these obstacles? Who could help you? There is always someone willing to help make your dreams a reality.