Time comes in three phases in a person’s life.
Phase one is when you are very young. You are not aware of time. There is very little, if any, concept of past, present or future. There is right now, nothing more.
Phase two happens when you are growing up. Time becomes very real, very concrete, and moves very slowly. There is a sense of permanency to time. You are doing what you sense you will always be doing.
Phase three is when you are growing older. Time starts to move – quickly. As you look back, you realize there is nothing permanent about time. You witness the stubborn fact that young people become old people.
Growing old is one thing, growing old in the blink of an eye is another. Permanency is true for rocks and boulders, but not for humans. You can’t help feel that life has played a trick on you. You feel cynicism seeping in. Where’s the hope, you ask. Each person must answer that for her/himself.
For me, I have dived into creativity. I created yet one more new life for myself. I am now a full time writer. To be exact, I’m an essayist. Up until five years ago, I think I had co-authored, written, or hired ghost writers to produce maybe 75 or so articles and books. Since that time, I have committed to personally writing what I create. That has resulted in close to 300 essays and poems reflecting observations I have made about the human condition, mainly my own condition.
I have followed the literary model introduced by French writer and philosopher Michel de Montaigne (1533-1562). He invented self reflection in essay form.
I only know what I directly experience, and until I do, I really know nothing. Montaigne said the same thing but in fewer words, “I am myself the matter of my book.” (Wiki)
Montaigne had insights about old age. “There was nothing more notable in Socrates than that he found time, when he was an old man, to learn music and dancing, and thought it time well spent.” ( The Complete Essays )
Yes, time plays tricks, and that is only too real once old age is upon you. To combat its deleterious effects, you must be reborn anew.