Friday 22 January 2021

Passages of Time

Leading the way...

 This week's change in the White House's residency has made me consider who it is we consider to be leading the way forward and how the passage of time, as in 4 year intervals, can have such a profound effect on us all...

Usually I write this blog to relate the activities in our personal family saga however as we don't exist in a bubble... apart from what our governments recommend, of course... it is important to reflect on all the worldwide ramifications of the wind of change! 

So firstly to America, every 4 years there is the Presidential election. A moment, or as seen more recently, many months to choose what the next 4 years will bring. If only it was that simple. None of us, including psychics, could possibly have envisioned what the past 4 years could have held for the US... or the rest of us.

It is 4 years since Andy and I started renovating our new home and it is still a work in progress.

...  and talking about a work in progress, the UK Brexit negotiations seemed to have taken forever. Not just a four year interval. Who knows where the next four years will take us.

4 years as a unit of time seems quite an arbitary amount and yet it features regularly in sport with the Olympics and various sporting World Cups using the same time measurement. Well usually they do, the past year has put paid to this scheduling for some time to come.

How, I ask myself is our grandson, Murphy now 4 years old!  OK, he is 4years and 5 months but his 4+ years have sped by. He is now approaching the watershed of "schooling". Not yet, but soon, as in Canada they register their children for school long before they enter the halls of education. A place where they learn to divide time into classes, weeks and semesters... and learning becomes what you do at school rather than what you do every day.

Rosie will be 2 in April and is learning words and their meanings, having already learned to walk and talk... and importantly how to have fun! This miracle of human progress and endeavour is something we should never take for granted. People of all ages evolve as life's experiences alter their world. No matter what circumstances we find ourslves in, we must teach our children the art of enjoyment.

What fun!

 

 

Fun could be:

  •  taking pleasure in nature
  •  enjoying physical exercise
  •  escaping into a book or an imaginary world
  •  experiencing the exhilarating sound of laughter 
  • and above all  connecting with others in play... 

Which one would be your favourite, I wonder? 

 

... and of course you are never too young to enjoy making and eating pizza!

Last January, before we learned the practical meaning behind social distancing and self isolation, to many of us, the world each of us lived in was a personal expression of our wants and desires. Freedom meant doing anything we wanted and whenever we wanted. Curtailing that kind of freedom has led to the freeing of time to be filled with very different priorities. Many of them relating to family and friends.

Last January, Andy enjoyed his 69th birthday with friends and next week, when he reaches the age of the big 70,  we will be celebrating with family through the regularly used medium of internet connection, albeit with a glass of bubbly in our hands! Each birthday is an important landmark when considering our personal passage through time. We can never take any birthday for granted and like many others wonder what the next year or four... holds in store. 

One thing I do know, is that the lessons being learned today by our children and grand-children hold the key to a brighter tomorrow.

They have a different view of life to us... a better one.

A fun day at the farm