ONE WOMAN'S VIEW OF LIFE NUMBER 7

Doesn't time fly when you are having fun?  Have you ever thought about that saying?  Time is time; it doesn't go any faster or slower but somehow our perception of it changes depending upon what we are doing.  Take for instance the joys of the gym; the thirty seconds I do on the exercise bike pedalling furiously go much slower than the next thirty seconds whilst I am trying to regain some semblance of normality and regular breathing! It just isn't fair that something that is enjoyable goes so quickly and the horrible things that we have to do (housework, working inside whilst the sun is shining..) drag on forever until we are literally clock watching to see if there ever will be an end to it.  But then I guess that life isn't fair either. Or is it?

We can complain that life has dealt us a bad hand, that someone has upset us or the grass is always greener on the other side; but is this really the case, or can we make of life what we choose?  I used to be the former; life was the pits, people were always upsetting me for some reason or another and I longed for a life of luxury that had always eluded me.  I was not a happy bunny!  I can only assume that growing older has made me wiser (it has certainly given me more wrinkles, more aches and pains and a shocking memory - what was I saying...?) but I have discovered that life is what I make it.  I can choose to be happy or sad, revengeful or forgiving, working or idle.  The choices I make build me as the world sees me.

No-one has ever called me beautiful.  Attractive (to wasps maybe!) or pretty (awful!), but never beautiful.  This used to cause me never ending angst.  I wanted to be beautiful, but I wasn't and it showed.  Now I feel beautiful inside and out.  I am happy in my own skin and although I do try anti wrinkle creams; supports for this, that and the other and eat lots of fish in the vain hope of getting brainy, or the very least, less forgetful; I have comes to terms with me.  I feel beautiful and no one can take that away.  My only regret is that it has taken me so many years of wasted energy to get to this point!  If I could turn back time and live my life over again, I would do it so very differently.

So what is time, exactly?  Is it a moment?  A fleeting speck in the universe that comes and goes in a heartbeat?  An age to grow up in and have fun before we have to knuckle down to responsibilities?  Or is it a mystery that Einstein explained but I have never understood?

Many things to ponder over and some that can just be cast away as dross. But when I sit and write these chaotic meandering thoughts of my little brain, I like to think that I have somehow put my world to rights and maybe given you something to mull over whilst eating your lunch or the biscuit that you are just about to dunk.

I am happy most of the time although I do have periods when I am sad for some reason or another.  Being sad is not the same as being miserable, contrary to what you may think!  I can be sad because someone has died or a friend has ignored my pleas for forgiveness, but being miserable conjours up images of not wanting to be happy.  Wouldn't you rather be happy than miserable all the time?  It doesn't take much to put a smile on your face; surprisingly it makes you feel happy even if you are doing it because you have to (for your job perhaps).  Let's try an experiment and see what happens.  Smile once at least every five minutes and see how you feel after an hour.  Apart from feeling completely crazy  that you are doing it, (and possibly looking odd if someone just happens to be watching you smile inanely for no reason whatsoever!) doesn't it make you feel good?  And  it gives you time to reflect on the good things in life rather than the pretty grim things that we sometimes have to deal with.

Please let me know how you get on with this little experiment.

Guess what?  We have come full circle as I started talking about time and I am still talking about time as a way to re-energise (by smiling), to reflect on the way we feel about things (whilst smiling) and to annoy the heck out of your partner or colleagues (with the silly smile a bit like Mona Lisa) as they try to fathom out why you are smiling! 

Smile as you work because doesn't time fly when you are having fun? :)