Clock Time

Daylight savings ended a couple weeks ago. I always thought turning back our clocks an hour every autumn only to turn it back forward in spring was a really pointless practice, "as if changing the clock would change time," I thought to myself when I was little. Later in my life in high school it was quite the opposite, because in most of October I was waking up in utter darkness; but with November came the graceful reprieve of waking with the sun, granted simply by changing the red symbols displayed on my clock. Nevertheless, I still thought it was a strange idea.

Finally, this year's daylight savings got me thinking of it as an important reminder of what "time" really is. That "clock time" is merely social convention and nothing else. It "exists" only to help us coordinate our plans with other people. The only true time that exists, however, is the present moment. The past is past, and the future is never experienced except as the present moment. Everything, without exception, happens in the present moment. This is simple, yet profound, and matters a great deal to really absorb this into my mentality. So, setting the clocks back is simply an agreement with the rest of society to do things an hour later than normal. It is becoming winter after all, and my karma is tied with that of the sun and the earth's rotation around it. Through this acceptance of "clock time" and daylight savings time for what they are, social conventions, I'm getting valuable spiritual practice by aligning myself with the universe. With that said, I'm going to bed.