As a child, the days and weeks seemed almost endless. Waiting for things like Christmas, a birthday or even a destination was pure torture. Long lazy Summer afternoons just drifted on and on in a warm fuzzy haze.
Are we nearly there yet?
These days, with life largely in the rear-view mirror, the days shoot past like a rocket with bells on. And frankly, I bloody well hope the bells aren't tolling for me because I'm not 'nearly there' yet and certainly not ready to pop my clogs but, as my lovely old friend Jules observed, "at our age, we are living in sniper alley." So you never know.
I don’t know if any of you feel the same, but nowadays it seems that no sooner have I woken up, then it's time for bed again. I lie there reflecting on the day and wondering where the hell it all went and what I've actually achieved in that time.
And then I look back and marvel at how I did so much when the kids were little and I was juggling so many balls. But now they've grown and my parents have gone, so theoretically I've reclaimed my time and how I spend it.
So why is it all getting faster?
I'm not exactly ancient, but I am in the last quarter and wish the days could amble along like those long hot summers when we were kids. And that, as we start to slow down a little, we could press 'pause'. And breathe. And enjoy every moment for longer.
I know this makes me sound like a ranty old granny which I am, but it’s actually a well known phenomenon that we oldsters seem to feel like time is speeding up. Which frankly gives us all the more reason to do something with what time we have left.
Feeling guilty for not having posted anything in here for a while, I was reflecting on time and where it all goes. I’ve been busy being not that busy. And then I had a weird revelation about how I spend and view time and why it seems to be whizzing by so quickly.
And it could also account for why I spend much of my time feeding my obsession with learning and going on courses.
So why do I do this? Well In some ways that’s quite easy to answer. It gives me that addictive novelty of discovering something new.
Feeding my insatiable curiosity, I look on the unfamiliar with the eyes of a child. I'm processing new information and learning. Continuously. And this, say the experts, is why, for children time drags by as their brains develop and process new information and develop new neural networks, but as we age it speeds up. Our brains are already developed with familiar networks and paths … even if they are deteriorating.
So the theory is that by introducing novelty into our lives we could make memories stand out more and somehow stretch time - like it did when we were kids exploring something new.
So I hope that by feeding my obsessional desire to learn, and be excited by new things this somehow will slow down time and stimulate brain to fight off the 'embuggerance' as Terry Pratchett called it. That Prince of Darkness - the bastard Alzheimer’s and all the other dementors - lurking in the wings waiting to slowly suck the life out of us. I feel we have to use it or lose it.
Time does seem to stretch a little as I learn something new. And I guess this is where all the time's gone, because in the last 5 years I've done literally dozens of courses and learnt something new every day.
I couldn’t remember exactly how many courses and classes I’ve done over the last 5 years so had a quick think. And I came up with a grand total of 35!
Some are residential, some online over many weeks and some just short workshops or masterclasses.
And there are distinct themes emerging:
Food related - writing, photography and obviously cooking or fermenting.
Health and wellbeing: largely QiGong, including a teacher training course, Yoga retreats, natural skincare and perfume workshops
Then there are writing workshops and several work-related and mobile journalism courses
Three productivity and habit building masterclasses (A topic for my next newsletter. You can tell they didn’t work brilliantly because here I go procrastinating again 🤣)
Flowers: arranging and growing. I’m currently doing a #sowsandgrows online flower course for Creating a Cutting Patch. And am just about to head outside to sow a few more seeds and pot on those that have germinated.
And then there was one masterclass that was a complete anomaly. A two-hour online darning course! Me, who can barely thread a needle and hates sewing, learning to darn. Amazingly, it was weirdly satisfying.
I did it to mend Dad’s lovely old hiking socks which are older than I am and feature strongly in my childhood memory. They’d been darned many many times before by Grandma and then Mum and needed a bit of love and attention. I wear them to potter around the house.
They’d be proud of me for doing this course because it’s clear the make-do and mend gene is still going strong. Although it’s yet more proof that eventually we turn into our parents 😬.
Stuff worth sharing
I had to drive quite a bit this week for work and stumbled across several brilliant BBC Radio 4 programmes. Here are three that are well worth a listen:
The Patch this week featured a wonderfully rousing and heartwarming story of the sea shanty singers in Sunderland Point, a tiny village that gets cut off by the tide. A lovely story. Filled with music and the best of human nature. Have some tissues handy.
Yet another gem of a programme in the fascinating series The Life Scientific. This week’s guest was plate tectonics expert James Jackson on understanding earthquakes and building resilience. He’s a fabulously passionate communicator and you’ll come away with a far greater understanding of how earthquakes happen. Listening to it, the earth moved for me but then - full disclaimer - I am the daughter of a geologist who spent her entire childhood looking at geological phenomena.
And last but not least, another great episode of Michael Mosley’s ‘Just One Thing’ which went nuts this week. In it he looks at why eating nuts can reduce your waistline, help your heart and give your brain a boost. Yes please.
On the menu
Mushroom and lentil bake with tahini crust from Delicious Magazine. Yum. Easy, delicious, vegetarian
More foodie recommendations next time including some gut friendly suggestions that I’d been making on my Zoe programme which I talked about here.
That’s all for now, I need to get out and tend to my new seedlings.
Have a lovely weekend
Sue x