Great TIMES

= Swiss Time

Well, we have now arrived at the 5 month mark. Can you believe it? Because I certainly cannot. The last five months have gone by so quickly and yet, it also seems like an eternity. I am a different person, and yet so much of me is the same. So much seems to have happened, and yet not so much at all in the grand scheme of things. Time passes, without asking our permission, blessing or acknowledgment. It's not very nice of time, if you ask me. But yet, we cannot stop time, and even if we could, would any of us really want to? Good and bad things happen throughout time. Happy and sad. Breathtaking and awesome, beautiful and ugly, joyous and strenuous. It's that dreadful balance that we must accept. There is no avoiding it, no ignoring it, no changing it. Time is the one thing that everyone, everywhere in this world, in this universe has in common. Time never changes, a minute is a minute, an hour is an hour and unless you're really picky and into rocket science, a year is a year. (Yes, I know that actually our planet is slowing and each year is actually a few seconds longer, but all in all, its the same). Yet, a year can change so much. Time has inconceivable powers. It can do so much without doing a thing. Why we are so obsessed with time I will never know. But in a country known for its watches nearly as much as its cheese and chocolate I've been thinking quite a lot about time. What does time mean to the average person. Other than dictating our days, when to get up, when to go to bed, when to eat, when to play. Time is a very peculiar thing.

Since I've been in Switzerland, I've had at least 3 friends/acquaintances get married, I've lost a dear, dear mentor & friend to a long and painful illness, my sister-in-law has announced her pregnancy and one of my (several) expecting friends has given birth to a beautiful baby boy. Here in Switzerland, the time has made me say goodbye to many wonderful people, and hello to many more. I've gained "sisters" the way I never thought I would. I was reminded of the love & glory of God, and slowly I'm rediscovering my lifelong education of faith. I've had déjà vu IN FRENCH and I've found out that I can carry a conversation in a foreign language with its native speakers. (I can even get complements from FRENCH people on mon français). I've listened to thunderstorms, and prayers. I've watched real football. I've been out with friends until 1am and yet still were not tired to keep laughing and running about. I've waited patiently (and not so patiently) for the sunshine. I've watched movies, listened to music and read books. I've lost nearly 30lbs. I've dyed my hair. I've gotten in touch with my European side (not like that was all that difficult).

Still it's TIME that dictates everything. Even in that last paragraph, the references to TIME are nearly inescapable. I've said hello & goodbye, I've waited and I've stayed up. In my recent "rediscovery" of church, of faith and believing, I've been reminded on more than one occasion of the Ecclesiastes excerpt from Chapter 3, verses 1-8. Now I'm certainly not one to preach but this passage I think speaks to everyone, of faith or not because as I said before WE ALL HAVE to accept time. It is the one thing we cannot avoid, deny or hide from. I am learning this all over again. I look back on time without realizing that every time I do, "back" is further and further away. Time takes and gives, but it never steals. It simply finds another way around, another action you hadn't thought of and leaves you with a memory. Positive, negative or something in between. I do not know what TIME has in store for me. I have another (at least) 7 months here. Chances my time will be longer. But I have to decide. And that's what makes time so hard, we have to make choices about time. Make decisions that effect the outcome of the unknown.

One year, 12 months, 365 days, 8,760 hours, 525,600 minutes (and I won't even go into the seconds). These are units of time. But so is life. One LIFETIME. Pregnancy, childhood, adolescence, adulthood. School, work, family, friends. Smiles, wishes, hopes, fears and desires are all measurements of time. Funnily enough, as I'm writing this very sentence, this paragraph, my itunes decided to play the song "Come What May" from the OTS to Moulin Rouge. That song, just as so many other songs, memories and stories mentions TIME. "And I'll love you, until the end of time. Come what may, come what may, I will love you until my dying day." We NEED time. We need the stability and the certainty of time. We need the restraints. The boundaries. The limits. Time is perpetual but not infinite. Not for us anyway. Even science agrees that there was a time when time as we know it did not exist. Before the sun, before the solar system time stood still and there was nothing. NOTHING. The emptiness, the vacuum of space was all that was available. We weren't even there. Then OUR time came. However you look at it, whether it was God, creating everything from nothing, from emptiness or a big bang that lead to a series of unbelievable but undeniable chance that brought LIFE about either way it TOOK TIME. And it's how we look at that time, examine that time and accept that time, that we will be satisfied with the reply. We cannot escape time. But we can embrace it, join it, share it and love it for the mysteries it provides and the uncertainty it will always bring about.

I do not know what I am going to do when my time here is over. In fact I do not even know when my time WILL be over. But what I do know, is that until that day arrives, I will continue to take the time, the opportunities provided and embrace this life, to the best of my abilities.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 (emphasis given)

To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:

A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;

A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;

A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;

A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;

A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;

A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;

A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.

Time Moves on, like a river. It moves forward, never backwards. It runs into bumps along the way, but always makes it through.

Two dear friends, I've had to say goodbye to. Chelsea & Sam.

Tinna, my first ever Icelandic friend, whose time in Switzerland has finished.

Dear Friends who have taken off, are preparing to and ones that have only just arrived (L-R: Heather, Jennifer & Brittany)