As you know, Claire and Honey get their mani-pedis every month because one of the first things that was impressed upon me as a fish out of water Bronx boy who knew nothing about caring for creatures larger than a dog was that you never see a three-legged equine. Foot care matters.
Luckily, I didn’t need to go looking for a farrier because Jason Bastemeyer was Claire’s farrier before I met Claire. Claire vouched for him. So, of course I brought him along to Casa Claire to continue to care for her hooves.
Jason also handled Mr. Rogers’ hooves during his brief but wonderful time sharing this energy plain of my world, and after, when Honey arrived, she also fell under Jason’s care.
Over the years Jason has morphed into a good friend and his time clipping and filing hooves is often filled with the usual/unusual conversations men engage in during trips to a garage or barber shop. Politics, the economy and just about every other topic that we are falsely confident in our expertise.
As I don’t get to speak to humans that often, by choice and happenstance, I really enjoy the randomness of these conversations. It reminds me that in order to make my experience on this energy plain worthwhile, I need to engage in spontaneous conversations with others. Humans are close enough. Spirits in a pinch.
I don’t need to engage in speaking with humans too much or too often. I mean, I have Claire as a constant clever conversationalist. Given the fact that – due to Claire’s Theorem of Relativity – time speeds up as you age, a month between conversations with others passes in the blink of this old eye.
For those that don’t know Claire’s Theorem of Relativity, which is different from Claire’s Theorem of Five Blog Readers,
Claire’s Theorem – The Wise Novelist
the simplest explanation is as follows:
The measure of time for a human is always factored against how long they have lived. As an example, an hour time-out for a four-year old is an eternity. Whereupon a man in his late sixties can waste an hour going to the bathroom and will be lucky if it gives him time to dry his hands afterwards.
Here’s another way of looking at it. Take yourself back to that first summer vacation after you completed kindergarten. Those three months seemed like a lifetime, because three months was comparatively a huge portion of the time you had spent on earth. Now take yourself back to college. Those three months flew by. Three months became a much smaller fraction of the time you had spent on earth. The speed of passage of time is perceptively relative to the time you have already spent on earth.
My time since landing here at Casa Claire in 2017 has literally flown by. It seems like I barely get the annual flowers planted in May before they are withering in September. I barely have time to get the mule’s fashionable winter coats cleaned and repaired before I’m putting them back on them.
So, when my publisher tells me that a book I’ve agreed to write won’t be published until the next year, I don’t flinch because I know the publication date will arrive before I’ve digested my breakfast. And when I tell myself I’ll start writing that book in the next spring term, if I’m not extremely vigilant, I won’t get to it before the summer because the time has sped past me. A blink of my eye.
One way I’ve managed to endure this ineluctable acceleration of time is by forcing myself to live in each moment. I stop worrying about what comes next because there’s nothing I can do to slow it from arriving and that allows me to surrender to the full engagement in the fun of the moment I am experiencing now.
So, whether it’s my next conversation with Jason, my next hug with Claire, the next novel I’m writing or my next negotiation with the Honey behind my never shrinking “Honey Do” List, I try to stay focused on that moment so I can fully appreciate the life I’m living before time speeds me to my next energy plain.
And as one more proof of Claire’s Theorem of Relativity, for you, my fine, five readers – there can only be five – we have collectively blinked and found ourselves at another Monday.
So, finish that last cuppa, pull up your socks and advance out into the productive work week.
Don’t worry, the day, week, month year and decade will be over before you know it.
But don’t waste that time, live in each moment, and let us make today a great one.
