Time

 

I've always thought that time was a line. That moments were like dominoes, and the black dots in them were the pits of our realities. I always imagined time to line up in the way dominoes do, one standing neatly to the next, forming a tidy little line of memories and aspirations. When one domino tips and falls, and falls into the next. Falling. Falling. Falling. One moment falling neatly into the next between the beginning and the end. Starting where we are conceived and ending when our consciousness leaves this earth. A progression of time, each moment falling flawlessly into the next. Our first breathe in this universe, to our first steps, to our first day of school. Each domino holding with it our most valuable moments, pushing our potential into the future that lies ahead. Our first day of school evolves into our first love, our first kiss, our first heartbreak. Suddenly the dominos experience something that feels beyond their capability of linear time. The dominos start to fall in a way that makes us live differently. The dominoes keep falling, and we keep evolving. Keep healing. When the last domino falls, and the universe can no longer contain our breath, time remains. It is then that it becomes clear that time is not a line. Moments are not like dominoes that fall flawlessly into the next, tipping the one after it into a line of infinite potential and possibility. What happens when time stops being linear? When the dominoes stop falling, and the time seems to culminate? What remains after linear time is extinguished is a rain storm. Moments are not perfectly aligned, and time does not stop here and end there. Time stops being a line, and moments cease to be simple dominoes. Moments suddenly become like rain. Small drops falling all around us. Some raindrops are bigger than others. Some splash into a puddle. Creating endless ripples, and disrupting the reflection that was once so clear. Others fall silently down a well. Into an abyss of lost moments, where time seems to not even exist. Raindrops falling all around us. A storm is suddenly born when linear time dies, and our memories and legacies live on in that storm. Time is not a line, and it does not start with our first breath and end with our last. Time is raindrops falling all around us, and it culminates in a storm.