Heartbeats and Eternal Life

The Camino calls. It is almost time to go.

Time is a funny thing, as I learned when I retired and discovered I had more “time” to really think about it. Time is as real as the Colorado River that I rafted down a couple weeks ago: flowing, everchanging, evermoving, yet ungraspable. With help from the gods of the world we are born into, we divide time into days and months and years. But how real is time? The past exists in my memories and the future in my imagination. The present escapes as soon as I attempt to lay my hands on it. I close my eyes. I sense a heart beat, and a I take a deep breath; I contemplate eternity. I become conscious of my own consciousness. I begin to experience silence where there is sound and brightness where there is no light.

And then the Camino calls! I remind myself not to get too excited. The sooner it begins, I rationalize, the sooner it will end. But that is not the way of time. It is like the river, meandering here and rushing there, spreading out forever until it is reborn.

The Camino calls and it is almost time to go.