Speaker A: Hi, I'm Jean Lambin, and welcome to It's About Time We Talked You, which is exactly like it sounds. It's a podcast where we talk about time in all its magnificent manifestations. But before we dive into that conversation or that reflection, it seems to be important to figure out what point we are starting from. So I'm going to invite you to do a short reflection. So if you are so inclined to do so, you might want to find a quieter space and if possible, have headphones on and be in a place where you won't be disturbed. So I'll give you a second and you can go ahead and pause if you need to, and then come on right back. Welcome back. Take a moment to settle in and take a deep breath and go ahead and slowly let that breath out and just take a moment to notice. Notice any sounds that are in your environment. Perhaps, like me, you hear a plane flying overhead, a clock ticking in the background, the distant sound of traffic. Perhaps you hear people talking, or you're in a cafe or other place, so you hear that ambient background noise, people congregating in a space together. But just take a moment to notice those sounds. And as you are noticing, think about how far away a sound is or how close it is, and that in that loudness or quietness. There can also be an interval of time, of how long it takes a sound to travel from its source to your ears, to be received by you and then processed by your brain into something identifiable and nameable. And that's just a beautiful little moment of time. And take another breath. And now just take a moment to notice your body, what feelings or sensations are present, starting at the top of your head and working your way down through your head, your neck, your shoulders, your stomach, your hips, your legs, your knees, your calves, your ankles and your feet. And maybe your feet are resting on the floor and connecting you to the space that you're in. And just simply noticing, not evaluating, not judging, but just simply noticing some of those sensations that are present. And again, thinking about that expanse of time and the role it plays in communicating information that you might notice the feeling of the fabric of your jeans. Let's say you're wearing jeans, and you brush against that with your hand and you feel that sensation of the fabric against your fingers, and it feels like it happens simultaneously. But in reality, there's a tiny delay, an expanse of time between when the moment happens and when we perceive the moment and when we experience the moment. So just taking that moment to inhabit your experiencing body and your experiencing self and then take another breath, and then the invitation is incredibly simple, but also incredibly complex. To think about time, this force, this thing, this measurement, this expanse, this framework. That for many of us, is how we mark our days, how we know where we're supposed to be at a certain moment. How many minutes have passed? How many days, how many years? How old are we? How old is our house? Our city, country? The Earth? The universe? This great sweeping expanse of time, is it a straight line? Do we go from point A to point B in a progression marking steps along the way? Is it a curve? Is it a spiral? Is it a squiggle? How do you experience that progression of time? Is there a past? Is there a present? Is there a future? Is everything happening altogether at once? But just simply notice how you experience that progression of time and then the last invitation is, how does time feel? And this probably changes. It probably isn't static. There are some times where you want time to whoosh away as quickly as possible. And then there are other times where it fleets away and you don't want it to pass. You want to stay in that moment for as long as possible. Maybe there's a longing for moments that have passed. Maybe there's relief for moments that have passed. Maybe there's indifference or just being simply unperturbed that time is passing. And for the future, how does that feel? Is there excitement? Is there a looking towards or a looking forward? Is there avoidance? Is there hesitation or fear? Is it all of the above or none of the above? There is no right or wrong way to feel about time. The only invitation is to just notice how you feel about it in this moment. It's not a contract. It's not an agreement. It's just whatever it is. And that's going to be our starting point of our conversation. Where to begin? Where do we begin? We begin by considering how time is for us, where it lives in us and how it feels. And once we have that and once we sit with it, we can start our conversation together. Appreciate your staying here in this moment. That's this dazzling blend of being together and being apart, but somehow being connected through time. And I look forward to our continued conversations. I'm Jean Lambin, and thank you for listening to it's about time we talked.
