Time is a Great Teacher, But it’s Killing Me!

Today’s Slice of Life at TwoWritingTeachers.org

You know when time flies and you don’t know where it went? You want to stop it, but, of course, you can’t?

I experienced that this evening in a workshop. I am part of a leadership team doing a storytelling training on Zoom. (Yikes!) The leaders were given 90 minutes to help our small group prepare a story to be presented in the workshop. All participants would go through the process to learn the story, but one brave volunteer would actually tell the story to another group.

We had quite a schedule to follow–learn the story, find spiritual observations, plan and prepare for leading a discussion, make applications, prepare an introduction, and the list goes on a little bit more. Fifteen minutes here, five minutes there, forty minutes for this part, ten minutes there, and so forth, according to a very specific schedule.

However, I’m not sure what I did because I looked up at one point and saw this message pop up in my breakout room on Zoom–“45 minutes are finished. You will have 45 minutes more.”

What? Where did the time go? How was I so off schedule? The time had vanished! And we were getting behinder and behinder! Pretty soon, our storyteller would be beamed out of the room to tell the story that he/she was not prepared for.

Time…that strange entity that passes at the same rate each year, month, week, day, hour, and minute.

However, at times it lingers and loiters like it does for a kid waiting to go to Disneyland. Or like an American waiting for November 3. Or like the world waits for the coronavirus to stop spreading its germs. (Uncle, already!)

But most often these days, time feels like it is scooting and sprinting to the finish line of my days.

“Time is a great teacher, but unfortunately it kills all its pupils.” ~Hector Berlioz

8 thoughts on “Time is a Great Teacher, But it’s Killing Me!

  1. I haven’t attended a zoom writing workshop but I imagine it would be no less daunting to read out your work to a group.
    Sounds like an engaging and interesting workshop for time to fly by so quickly!

    1. Kathy, thank you for stopping by! Sometimes I do love those fully-present moments that fly by. Tonight it didn’t work when I had an agenda I was supposed to be following, but those are sweet times when we are fully engaged in learning, aren’t they?

  2. Time really is a paradox, isn’t it? When we want it to slow down, it seemingly speeds up. When we want it to speed up, it seemingly drags. I’ve always found pacing more difficult in conference presentations. Perhaps that’s because these presentations are not my norm.

    1. Thanks, Glenda. Yes, like you with conferences, it’s not a norm for me to lead small groups through a detailed and specific checklist of skill development. I’m much more “go with the flow” and let the conversations develop. I do really respect people who lead meetings and can graciously keep everyone on track and following the stated objectives. I’m not one of them!

  3. >But most often these days, time feels like it is scooting and sprinting to the finish line of my days.<

    So. Much. Truth.

    I've felt that each time I look up, another hour is gone. Another class period is done. Another day is finished. Where does it go? Are we learning? And will this dang virus just stop?? 🙂

    Thanks for post your thoughts today. They were so relevant to many of us and how our teaching has gone for the last few months.

    1. Darin,
      Great questions! “Where does [the day] go? Are we learning? And will this dang virus just stop?” Love that. Yes, we will beat it into submission eventually. That’s what I’m believing.

  4. I find time to be such a crazy thing. I can hardly stand to think about how fast it goes — and how slowly it can go sometimes too. Thanks for articulating that in this slice!

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