“I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo.
“So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

I saw a movie on the weekend –man it was awesome to sit in the darkness for a couple of hours, with nothing to worry about other than the popcorn stuck between my teeth – but other than the joy of being worry free for a couple of hours, there was a line in the movie that really struck me.

There is no present like the time.

When they first uttered it, I brushed it off as a silly slip of the tongue by the character. But when it was reiterated at the end of the movie, I actually thought about it and fell in love with the meaning behind it.

There is no present like the time.

Just sit in it for a while.

It’s interesting, because, said in the traditional manner – There’s no time like the present – these six words have opposite meaning. One seems to be talking about time running out and the other reflects on the presence of time.

Have a think about how many times in a week you wish for more time. “Just give me five more minutes”, “If only there were more hours in the day”, “I can’t believe I’ve run out of time again this week”, “I wish I could have one more day with…”.

Why do we never seem to have enough time?

Is it because we are just so busy these days? The time to sit and ‘smell the roses’ is not in abundance anymore, so we quite simply don’t notice the hours, days, weeks ticking by till we actually do stop and realise that week turned into a year. Are we really that busy though, or do we feel we need to be busy because sitting still is considered lazy? Perhaps we should challenge ourselves to just be in the moment every once in a while. As a very wise John Lennon is quoted as saying, “Time you enjoy wasting was not wasted.”

Do we never feel like we have enough time because we never really know how much time we have? There is nothing absolute when it comes to time. So we live in a constant state of busy-ness, to fit ALL the things in, but nothing at all at the same time. When we do have the chance to look back on it all, what will stick in our memory? Aren’t they the moments we should be treasuring, cherishing and trying to make time for in our schedules? Because we really don’t know when it will be the last time we get to do that thing. Be with that person.

I guess in a lot of ways we see the ticking of the clock every single day. We watch our kids grow up before our eyes, our beloved pets’ lives come and go in the blink of an eye, our parents are all of a sudden eligible for Seniors Cards and are given priority seating on the bus, our own hair starts to turn a shade of grey and our eyes crinkle more and more at the corners. We don’t do ourselves any favours either – I wish she’d hurry up and learn how to walk; I wish the weekend would be here already; I can’t wait until the next time I see … – How about instead of wishing away the days, we all try and make the effort to embrace the now? Acknowledge the joys (and the pains) of right now. Do everything to feel now. Remember now.

There really is no present like the time. We must cherish our time and choose wisely who we spend our precious time with, and what we do with it. Everything finishes too soon. Don’t regret the time you spend and how you spend it. It is a currency that has no limit to its value

There is no present like the time.