If you love life, don’t squander time

I came across this amazing clock on the Cornish side of the Cremyll Ferry when I was down in Plymouth the other week. The words around the clock face state that “time and tide tarry for none”.
This was set within the frame of the bigger question: “Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time”.

This really got me thinking about our often challenging relationship with time. Time plays a key role in our lives. It gives meaning to our stories: without it life would just be a disconnected series of events. Yet all too often time becomes the enemy: we don’t have enough of it, we are driven by deadlines, squeezing the impossible into every moment, constantly chasing after time, or beating ourselves up about spending it the wrong way. Victorian instructions ‘not to squander time’ would only add to the guilt and frustration we already carry around with us – wouldn’t they?

And yet there was something really intriguing about the way the question was put: dost thou love life? And if the answer was “yes!” what would that mean for the way we chose to spend our time?

I was mulling this over as I walked through the gardens at Mount Edgcumbe. It was a balmy spring day and the magnolias were just starting to blossom. Old ladies were having a blether in the tea-room by the orange garden. The path led down to the sea and it was warm enough to sit by the shore. Just sit for a while and bask in the warm spring sunshine. Listen to the waves. Watch a father teaching his young daughter to skim stones. Patient, encouraging, laughing. Engrossed in his own skimming. Hearing the music of the gulls calling on the wind. Watching the slow ferry move back and forth across the water.

And I suddenly realised: all of this is about time. The decisions we made about how we were going to spend this hour, this morning, this day, this short blessing of early March sunshine.

So perhaps that is what the clock was telling me. Not an instruction to be busy or productive. But a simple reminder that we can chose how to spend time. And if you love life – and if you know what you love about it – how are you choosing to spend your time?