What is it like to be 3000 years old? What is it like to stand alone, towering everything else? What is it like to know you surpassed all the things around you, as they die and live and die, yet still you live?
In our era, time is a precious commodity. Our lives are divided by time slots. Time to go to work, time to go do this, time to do that. More time or more efficient time management means more opportunity to do work, and thus making more money. And even when we have money to rest and relax, that relaxation period also often divided by time slots. Time to get breakfast, time to have massage, time to sunbathe. When we do not glance at our watches, we glance at our phones and tablets and other gadgets. The time measurement that were created to assist us chained us instead. And all the while, time flows, regardless on how and what we do.
Imagine you are that tree. What is an hour compared to the thousands of days you have lived? What is a day, a week, a month? All time measurement cease to exist or bind you. The sun will shine tomorrow, the cold night wind will blew. Our presence was but a tiny particle in this universe; and whatever we do, whatever we say, time and nature was never affected.
It would be careless to do nothing as to copy the silence and wisdom of the tree. In fact, it is plain wrong. In it's silence tree live vigorously: leaves sprouting, roots dig deep for water and nutrition, amylum and oxygen produced from the carbon dioxide and sun and clorophyl, and all while providing shelter and a place to live for other animals and plants. Living is not only about inhaling and exhaling; it's about feeling each breath we take, grateful for it, and enjoying it. Time and nature is never ours to command, the humbleness to accept this and to enjoy what we have right now is what living is all about. And it's high-time (pun intended) for us to realize this.
I will not last for 3000 years, but I will make the best of my time on earth.
Note:
- for more interesting travel stories and intriguing pictures of wonders of the world visit: http://matadornetwork.com
- for a glimpse of living timeless/without time restriction for 1 full day visit: http://kucinghitamjalanjalan.blogspot.com/2011/03/nyepi-balinese-day-of-silence.html
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