>  Today’s the day we move our clocks back one hour for the change from Daylight Savings Time to Eastern Standard Time. Well, this year it’s the day. In previous years, it was traditionally the last weekend of October. However, in an effort to conserve energy, the federal government made the decision a year or two ago to move the setback to the first weekend in November.
    Which makes me ask two questions: “What is time” and “How important is it anyway?”
    Time and I have always had a somewhat different relationship. Because my intuitive sense was highly developed as early as childhood, I often “knew” or dreamed events “before” they seemingly happened. When asked how I was able to do that, my intuitive answer was “I get the information from a place in which there is no Time.” I don’t know where or how I came up with that response, but it seemed logical enough to me. If I had prior knowledge of an event that had not yet occurred, that information must exist somewhere outside of Time as we understand it.
    We all have a tendency to live either in our memories or in our projections for the future. Few of us master the art of living in the Present…the Now. The beauty of the Now is that when you are in it, there is no Time. Actually, it’s more accurate to say there is no need for Time in the Now. Living in the Now requires only that you be fully engaged in the moment. When that moment is complete, you simply move on to being fully engaged in the next moment, which then becomes the Now…and so on.
    It is interesting that we use the phrase “spend time” as if it were currency possessing an inherent value. What we are really saying is that we comprehend the preciousness of the time we spend in our bodies here on Earth. Yet, tacitly acknowledging that preciousness, we pretty much devalue or ignore the greatest power that we have, which is how we choose to be and what we choose to do in the Present.
    Last night, as I was spending the extra hour of the clock setback to watch a DVD of the former “Friends” sitcom, I noticed a photo of our daughter next to the TV. Today she is 14, but in that photo she was 4 years old. When I got into bed I remarked to my husband that I could hardly believe the tiny little toddler was now this blossoming young woman. His reply was “Yes, it really does go by in the blink of an eye.”
    Well, it does. So knowing that, it makes infinitely more sense to spend it wisely than squander it recklessly.
    I watch virtually no television and I’m on the computer almost exclusively for business. But when I think about the value of living in the Now, I wonder how many of us would take the opportunity, if offered, on the last day of our lives to exchange all the Time we spent watching TV or at the computer for the chance to live that much more time in our bodies? To have all those “Nows” back to spend more wisely.
    In Judaism, the observance of the Sabbath is a key component to spiritual life. If you’ve ever done it, it’s rather remarkable. The premise is that the Sabbath is a piece of Eternity…a stepping out of Time, and therefore a removal of oneself, away from all things material. To gloriously dwell for “24 hours” in the Now. It’s an indescribable feeling. Colors are brighter, sound is clearer, everything is more alive. Rather than the deadening of our senses that we experience when interacting with technology, to the contrary, our senses are heightened…as is an appreciation for what is inherently priceless in the moment of Now.
    Today, Daylight Savings Time begins. Perhaps it’s wise to think not about saving Time but instead investing it more wisely by releasing both past and future, and fully engaging the power of Now.

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