Grasping time...

The 6th day in the month of May... a nudging to look up if the blog that I started years back can still be found, and is still active and usable... Surprise of surprises!  My blog can still be found, though it has now been subsumed under the management and purview of Google.

I don't know about you, but the speed that time travels seemed to have sped up in the recent years... one moment, pre-covid years, another moment covid years, and while I agree that we couldn't wait for everything to get back to normalcy, now we are in the post-covid years.  And stay safe and stay cautious - the invisible virus that keeps mutating are still, and always, hovering around us - waiting for the low immunity ones to attack and have them spread and circulate...

I guess when we have things to fill up our time, work to do, pages of academics to study and mug, family matters and responsibilities to manage and look into, we always feel that time is insufficient and why time zoomed past so quickly... I was surprisingly amazed that the last I blogged was actually in 2013!!!!  WOW, more than 11 years ago!  How I really should get back into the habit of reflecting, journaling and blogging my sentiments and thoughts... 

The recent experience of time seeming to be so slow for me was when my Facebook profile got locked up, just so suddenly, without warning!  While many are inclined towards the use of Instagram, I personally still find Facebook helpful, informative and gets me connected to what is happening in the lives of friends, in the world etc... so imagine my shock on the morning of 8th April when I logged into my Facebook, the only message I saw was "your profile has been locked as there was suspicious activity detected".  So from the 8th April till 2nd May when I finally get my Facebook account/profile back, those were the SLOW 3+ weeks.  During this period, I attempted many times sending in what was asked by the Facebook Support but each time when I was hopeful that maybe or finally, that the ID will prove and verify my identify, or the video with the given code would be approved and a reset link would be sent - each time I felt more and more demoralized about ever having my account unlocked and returned to me.  I was set on one final try, telling myself that if the last try doesn't work, I may really have to create a new account, and start all my befriending with my contacts (of which there are many) ALL OVER AGAIN!  I wasn't keen, honestly, on this option of having to create another email address, create another Facebook account, sending invites to contacts to add me as friend etc - especially when in the recent years I do read and hear of friends' profile being hacked and another impersonated account of theirs created sending invites to contacts in the friend's list.  How am I to verify that I am authentic to my friends that I need to reconnect back again?  How will people know if the account is an impersonated one  or not?

I have no explanation and no idea how everything finally fell into place on 2nd May when the issue finally got resolved - I can only say that it's God's grace and His divine intervention!  Yes, even in seemingly small issue that has nothing to do with any spirituality - I see the hand of God there!  I was in my final desperate attempt to connect to the Facebook Bot and see if I can get connected to an agent, which I did two days before but the conversation was cut off abruptly and each time I logged in to my locked account, the conversation will restart all over again!  So feel my excitement and joy when the connection with the agent stays until the final instruction from the agent's end was given.   But the next moment I was somewhat disappointed that at the end of the day, the agent's instructions was the same as the Facebook Bot, ie, to submit a video holding a written code which was given via email and sent it to Facebook Support for them to verify and then decide if they found enough proof to unlock and return the account.  I decided to give it one last try and wasn't really hopeful that I will get a positive response.  My skepticism was turned to surprise and joy and the rest is history...

How fast or slow is time?  I guess while the speed of it is constant, with each person given 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days (366 days in leap year) - the answer is really relative and subjective.  Ask someone who is unwell and agonizing in bed trying to find relief - time crawls and time is super duper slow and painful.  Ask parents who are daily watching the growth of their children, they will probably exclaim the speed at which time passes.  Here's a favorite poem that beautifully capture "the value of time"

The value of time

To realize the value of ONE YEAR, ask a student who failed a grade.

To realize the value of ONE MONTH, ask a mother who gave birth to a pre-mature baby.
 

To realize the value of ONE WEEK, ask the editor of a weekly newspaper.
 

To realize the value of ONE DAY, ask a daily wage laborer with kids to feed.
 

To realize the value of ONE HOUR, ask the lovers who are waiting to meet.
 

To realize the value of ONE MINUTE, ask a person who missed the train.
 

To realize the value of ONE SECOND, ask a person who just avoided an accident.
 

To realize the value of ONE MILLI-SECOND, ask the person who won a silver medal in the Olympics.
 

Treasure every moment that you have! And treasure it more because you shared it with someone special, special enough to spend your time.
 

And remember that time waits for no one.

Yesterday is history.  Tomorrow a mystery.  Today is a gift.  That’s why it’s called the present!