The hourglass of life

Time is only a clock filled with sand which can be turned around as often as desired. If the last grain of sand has fallen and careful contemplation has been done, the hourglass has to be turned around again. We get a chance to begin anew or continue on the same path. Well, we don’t even have to wait until the sand has ceased to move. We can turn around the hourglass whenever we want. That means we can begin a new direction of life in an instant. But we should know that no grain of sand will fall exactly the same like it did before. The past has passed. “Olan oldu” we say in Turkish. What happened happened. Yet, two things are No-No’s: First, to leave the lapsed hourglass as it is like a dead person. If we don’t turn it at all, we really will be dead. Second, it is fatal also not to turn the hourglass right away if we start to take notice that the grains have clogged the neck of the hourglass, marking the threshold to our own life. Our time on earth stands still and we become our own prisoners of time. Time is destined to flow endlessly even if in reality human beings try to define it with definite periods and all kinds of absolute numbers. In its infinity without beginning and without end, time stays immortal and beautiful.

So why should we try to stop time? May the terrible past rest in peace as it is smaller than a dust particle and will vanish completely together with infinity. Instead, filling life with new beautiful moments give back much more. It is either a vicious circle or a virtuous circle depending on whether the past becomes our present or not. While all knowledge and beauty is contained in just one moment, it is also true that the same beauty withers away if we dwell in that same moment for much longer than needed. Life is not rigid. Life means motion. All creation is in the object itself, as all life is contained in the seed, but life's beauty dies if sooner or later it doesn’t transform into the next stage. Destination Transformation. The tree is not beautiful if it is never allowed to show its blossom in full glory. The same is true for the human being. If you allow the fertilized semen to grow as a child and later to an adult, it is nothing more than something “undead”. An intermediate level between death and life, something like a zombie who experiences the torment of its material presence without being really alive.

Mankind attains real beauty and greatness only if natural gifts are accepted and lived truly. The author has to transform letters into writing, the musician tones into melody and the weaver threads into cloth. An honest police officer has to transform a real crime into safety, an honest businessman an inefficient economic system into a flowing river of wealth and an honest politician the diverging clash of interests of the people into democratic peaceful pluralism. Be it in a small city, in a state or in the whole world. Everyone finds his important duty within these assignments. The holy task is to give the formless incoherence of things a solid shape of unity. This is a difficult task and requires a lot of hard work. And time. Therefore, let’s declare it as our helpful ally. We have to use time like a warrior preparing for the big battle by understanding and refining our skills with patience. With patience comes wisdom. Finally, the right point of time comes when the blade of the warrior’s sword will come down and free him forever from the chains of time that are haunting all of us throughout our lives.

Let’s stand still for a moment and be aware… Where are we now? Prep time, time to turn the hourglass around if we got stuck or is the time ripe to go into the big battle and break free from the bonds?

Tick tick tick... do you hear your heart beat?