Time On My Hands

As you can see above, I've got 'time on my hands' these days and working on this piece has brought all sorts of thoughts to the surface of my mind and spirit.  'Time' as a subject for artwork is quite common and I think it must be because it is such an elusive concept.  One day may seem to last forever and the next flies by almost before it started. 

I have a love-hate relationship with my own personal time.  I tend to wake up in the morning with thoughts of 'laying out' my day.  Before my eyes are even fully open I begin to think in terms of time, sometimes even hours ("before noon I'd like to walk and clean the kitchen" or "wonder if I can get my shopping finished before 2 so that I can have some time for beading").  But then, I resent those thoughts.  I'm retired and I'm not supposed to be putting my daily schedule into hourly increments.  That kind of thinking was 'required' when I rushed out to work each day.  After all, from the moment we enter childhood our lives seem to be proscribed by time guidelines (school starts at 8 - mustn't be tardy).  I suppose it would be total chaos if businesses and offices and factories were operated on an 'as will' basis.  Didn't wake up until 10, that's okay, just wander into your workplace at any time you please, as long as the work gets done.  Sounds idyllic doesn't it? So here I am, without an office to go to -- I am my own boss -- and still the boss in me expects that I do such and such at this time and finish this and that at that time. 

BUT, there is hope!  While I bead I think nothing of time -- I try to separate myself from everything else but the work in front of me.  My hands are moving, my mind is dreaming and I am really and truly 'not of this world'.  As I ponder 'time' I think that creating something from nothing with your hands is our human answer to the boundaries of time.  For that moment we are lost in a timeless world and it is enchanting and delightful.

"Clocks slay time... time is dead as long as it is being clicked off by little wheels; only when the clock stops does time come to life". - William Faulkner