What, for you, has been the best thing about getting older?

I totally agree.  To me, time feels like another attempt at control.  Think about how much we watch our clocks and how the days revolve around them.  When in reality, it's all right now :-)

the realization that time does not exist

There ya go…beautiful (:

I hear what you're saying, they draw time-lines in books and say this is what your life looks like.  It will be portioned out by the events that occur while you are living.  Some say its a circle, some a line, some a spiral.  There is backwards in time and forwards in time, mine just seems to grow in all directions like a bubble, intersecting hundreds and thousands of other bubbles.  There's a shampoo commercial in there some where…..  I have heard of time-space referred to as a sponge or foam, maybe that it.  Thanks, that'll give me something to think about.

As they say, it beats the hell out of the alternative.  I still have work on living in the Now, I keep getting ahead of myself and am in  danger of getting sidetracked or lost in the Future, without having paid full attention to the present.  What a waste of time that is…

“My present to me each day will be the outcome of presence.”  I like that.  In fact, I like that very much!  Thank you for sharing that thought.  I'm going to ponder on that for a while.

“I am still trying to get over the idea that most of what I do in the world is meaningless … all these outcomes I am seeking are really pretty much worthless and have very little impact on anything “ 

Somehow, when this realization really hits home, it can rattle the core of what we expected from life.  Then, as we progress further down the path, we start realizing that it was our expectations that were off-center, and having any expectations at all from life, is to miss the point altogether.  Or, at least that's how it's been for me.  I had this idea in my head of what a good life was supposed to look like, and when I didn't find myself in that place, I was disappointed. 

Now I'm trying to find a way to adjust my perspective so that I let go of expectations, but after a lifetime of chasing an end result that never materialized, it's difficult.  But that's where I'm headed.  Still, I continually ask myself the question about how I can have an impact on this world that is about love, and generosity of spirit, and acceptance, (when I, myself, struggle against those very things).  I want to be a teacher of life, but instead, find myself a perpetual student.

barbara, I came here to tell you that your post about time really spoke to me, but then I got lost in the subsequent commentary.  My relationship to time has shifted.  When my mother passed, I had a perfect glimpse of the expansiveness of time, and now, anything that comes after seems so insignificant and meaningless.  It either prompts me to accomplish more than I could ever have imagined in as short a time as possible, or it sends the message that none of it really matters.  The question is how to find a balance between the two truths.  If both are equally true, then where do I place my focus?  One makes me feel weary and hopeless, and the other fills me with possibility.  In my world, hopeless usually leads me in the wrong direction, so I'm trying to lean in the direction of possibility.  But it's an ongoing struggle.  A word, by the way, of which I've had my fill.

“we are creatures of constant motion because we are children of a universe that is always moving, always expanding and it is as timeless as we are”

These are words I can sink my teeth into, and give me hope.  I really responded to that when I read it the first time, and when I came back around for another look, it still grabs me with how beautifully it illustrates the continuity of life … always in motion … expanding, and timeless.  Great post, and comments.