Reflection on time - Penny Snowden

Time

This present reality in which we find ourselves has given rise to a heightened sense of the passage of time. We are not able to divide our hours up in the accustomed way. Even those who are able to work from home face a different reality. This can give us a new freedom which seems at odds with being ‘locked down’. We can look at time with renewed awareness.

Limpet

Determined, single-minded, dogged

the limpet clings to the face of the rock.

Hour after hour, solid, stoical

unresisting - not to be deflected

Epitome of patience and self will.

Then at last the waves nudge the rock

the sea steadily rises to submerge the shell:

all is action now - and life begins.

Water swirls - and the limpet moves free

But when the water recedes, to its inevitable pattern,

the limpet finds the same groove of rock

and the waves no longer reach the shell

And all is still.

But so long is spent in waiting

Enduring the hours

That, in the end

The equation of time

Balances

Freely.

Penny Snowden