The Sands of Time

Linear Time. For anyone who isn't as much of a die-hard Star Trek fan as I am, I will explain the basic concept of linear time.

It simply means that things happen in order, and once they have happened, they are done. You can't go back, and you can't go forward. You live in the now (as it should be), and the things that happened in the past or that might happen in the future are - very much so - completely irrelevant.

That's linear time. Barring some future understanding of trans-dimensional travel and/or a working time machine, we are all experiencing linear time at this moment, we've experienced it our entire lives, and we will continue to experience it in the future.

Therein lies the problem if something happens in your life that you didn't particularly care for. Once it is done, then it is done, and there isn't a thing that you can do to change it.

On the other hand, that same concept is a large part of what defines our human existence, so it isn't necessarily a bad thing.

However, if you do happen to end up with something in your past that you wish wasn't there, the fact that we are all on this linear timeline does indeed become problematic.

So, your options are:

1) Just deal with it. What's done is done, and you can't change it. Move on.

2) Keep thinking about what happened, and keep reliving the negativity over and over again.

3) Apply what you learned about what led up to the incident to begin with, and go forth (on the timeline) with a positive attitude, knowing that you will never let that sort of thing happen again.

Option #1 isn't bad, because you aren't causing further injury if you just forget about it. On the other hand, if you don't apply what you have learned, then what is to keep it from happening again?

Option #2 is definitely not the way to go because by the nature of Karma - if you believe in that - or by the letter of the Law of Attraction, by continually reliving any sort of negativity, you will continually attract more negativity into your life. That's the Law. I don't make these rules, I just follow them - just like you.

Option #3 is obviously the best way to go. No matter how bad the experience was, it was a valuable experience for you because you now know how to keep that same thing from happening again. You aren't ignoring the fact that it happened, which would just invite a recurrence into your life, and you certainly aren't attracting more negativity since you are not dwelling on the incident.

So, having properly chosen option #3, you now have a blank slate in front of you. An unpopulated stretch of road that can literally lead anywhere that you want it to lead.

In fact, it is a rather long stretch of road in my very own past that has inspired me to write this post to begin with.

I am sitting in lovely Daytona Beach, FL, and the date is October 28th, 2006. My wife and I are at a friend's house, and we will all be leaving soon to go spend the evening with some of our other friends at a favorite local bar/restaurant called The Ocean Deck - so named because you can literally walk in off of the beach and get a drink or some great food.

I am very happy at this moment because I am experiencing many of the things in my life that I enjoy greatly. Friends, family, great location, and a night on the town with no early morning responsibilities waiting for me tomorrow.

However, a similar set of circumstances existed at a point in the not-too-distant past at this very location, and it was a dark experience for me that I hope you - the reader - can learn from.

I won't get into the specifics of what happened, but let's just say that I had a bit too much to drink and decided that I wanted to walk home.

To Jacksonville.

From Daytona Beach.

For you non-Floridians, that's about an hour and a half in a car, so you can imagine how long it would have taken me on foot!

Now, obviously that was a stupid, drunken decision to make, and now that we have traversed some distance on the linear scale since that incident, myself and the others who know about it get a good giggle when we consider just how ridiculous alcohol can make people - even people as fearlessly logical and "in control" as I am most of the time! :)

The moral to this story is that although I chose option #3 (apply what I have learned), my choosing of that option was not something that I only applied to that particular incident. Rather, it is an entire lifestyle that I have taken on, and I encourage you to do the same.

You see, every SINGLE moment in our lives is a chance to start all over again. People tend to say "after tonight I will...", or "starting Monday I am going to...", or, my personal favorite "in the New Year I plan to..."

Those concepts are utterly and completely ridiculous.

Why the hell would you wait until some other point in the linear timeline to start making sure that your life is everything that you want it to be??? Every MOMENT is a chance to start over!

Every single moment you can bite your tongue and not say something nasty or negative to someone else.

Every single moment you can lower your voice when you are arguing with someone.

Every single moment you can realize that you might have made a mistake, and then apologize.

Every single moment you can stop and think about how wonderful your life is and how whatever negative thing that you are doing is not in your best interest.

Every single moment you can stop, turn around, and head south down State Route A1A to go back to your friends and your family. Or, you can keep heading north, walking further and further away from the people that you truly care about, and who truly care about you.

Why have I spent so much time illustrating why you should put so much value on what could happen in any given moment?

Because, my friends, we are all on a linear timeline, and each of those moments will never come again.

Your life is RIGHT NOW, in this very moment.

Live it, and be happy.

Cheers.