Our Complex Relationship to Time
- © Michele Toomey, PhD • May 4, 2000

We are informed by our past, live in the present, and anticipate the future. Talk about jet lag, we can experience three time periods simultaneously. That is not a simple feat. It demands the ability to handle complexity and mobility. If we become reductionistic and pretend we live only in the present or the past, we are caught in the scam of self-denial and self-deception. If we live only in the future, we lose touch with reality and live in the world of fantasy. Finally, if we become rigid, we find ourselves anxious and stressed by the pressure to be able to move freely through time. We were meant to be three dimensional, and cannot be liberated if we don't learn how to process the information that is in our system from three time periods. The key is envisioning life as a journey, not a test, and using the experiences from our past as information for discovery, not blame. By being open to the information we discover from our past, we can choose how we want to relate to it. If it's with integrity, we become wiser and evolve as we age. The present is, then, an outgrowth of the past, and the future is a possibility. That is complexity and integrity at their best. Time becomes a friend, not an enemy, and we are at one with it and ourselves.