.....into the dark

Yogis,
My Saturday morning run took me to the river’s edge as the sun was rising. My phone showed 7:38 am. Sunday morning, sitting on a rock halfway across the water to Virginia, I watched her rise again. This time my phone said 6:40 am.  The sun hadn’t changed course. We had……

Time. A concept created by humans around which our lives revolve. Time to get up. Don’t be late for work. Trains every fifteen minutes. The game starts at four so we should leave by two. Bake for one hour. Time for bed. All of us unconsciously checking our wrist, phone, pc or wall clocks all day….and at times, all night.

Originally humans lived within the rhythm of the natural world. The rising and falling sun, change of seasons and movement of the stars. Until about 3500 – 5000 years ago when the Egyptians created the first sundials and began constructing a measurement for ‘time.’

Centuries passed and the industrial revolution set in motion a need for agreements on time. Its structure and time zones becoming an important business and social construct in a more connected world. Standards set on a 24-hour day.

Until the intro of daylight savings time. Giving us one spring day with 23 hours and one fall day of 25.

Here we sit on this incredibly long day. The receding daylight in the evenings has been noticeable, but the return to standard time feels like a leap from the cliff. Into the dark……

Can it really be only 2:30?

Change the clocks before bed or is it better to wait for morning? Did I remember to adjust my alarm so it goes off at the right time? Did my car’s clock automatically adjust? And no matter how sure I feel I have covered it all, one clock will create complete time confusion when I see it a few days later.

One year the manual clock in my yoga studio stayed off by an hour for months because the only time I would realize it was wrong was when I would glance over in the middle of class.

I do the mental calculation of what time it ‘really is.’ Unsettled. Noticing the effect that changing time by a mere hour has on my sleep and mental state. Time no longer an anchor.

Phoebe doesn’t know the time changed (since it really didn’t) She begins begging for food at 3:30 which my mind quickly calculates as truly 4:30. Her dinner time. How do I break it to her? I often wonder do the birds and deer notice we humans all changed our patterns on the same day. It’s all so confusing.

Yet into the dark we go, marked by a movement of the hour hand on the clock. A shift. Did you feel it?

I find the best approach is to embrace it.

It’s 5:30 and wondering if I can put pajamas on yet,
SARAH