march on

Sometimes you can feel time passing, see it even. Other times, it just feels like it sits, stuck in a moment or a week or a year. It definitely doesn't pass consistently, for after a stagnant period, it seems to leap forward to the place where it would have been had it kept moving steadily. Quantum leap. You're being towed by a bungee cord that stretches until it reaches its limit and then zooms forward until it is slack.
Why do we perceive time the way we do? Every day in the week recurs with the same frequency, or do they? I can't tell. Mondays come 3 times a week, but Fridays, once a month. Date night is over, but faculty meeting is just getting started. It's all relative? Einstein explained his theory for people like me – when you're with a pretty girl, 2 hours seem like 2 minutes, but when you're sitting on a hot stove, 2 minutes seem like 2 hours.
That's why I think I'll try to stay upset with my kids all the time. Stay aggravated and grouchy. I figure that way it will seem to take forever to grow them up and get them gone. Maybe I can keep them longer.
Of course it does seem that way to them. Molly told me yesterday, "I've been alive for EIGHT! years daddy, almost NINE!" That seems like a lifetime – duh!

Yesterday I was asking my dad to pick me up from basketball practice, today I watched my kids walk together across a field away from me. I felt no time pass between basketball practice and today, but today I could see it flying by as my kids moved across the field, across the grass that was somewhat greener last week. Little bodies growing tiny. Day by day they venture further from my protective reach. How many more summers pass before they start across that field and just keep walking?