Why Time in a Bottle Restricts Your Life to a Cage


Here’s a cliché for you:  Time stopped!

Here’s the current reality…given the common understanding of what time is. It would be impossible for time to stop.  It probably would have catastrophic consequences if it did!
Think about it.  Almost everything you can think of has some relationship with the tick, tock progression of time. 
Time—that nonspatial continuum from the past; to the present; and on into the future.  In a word, time is inexorable.
So, why is it we even think in terms of trying to stop time or, to put that another way, capturing “time in a bottle?”
I think it is about gaining a sense of control over the progression of our lives.  We don’t want to lose it! We want to keep it and especially when it comes to those heartfelt moments in life that seem so fleeting.
How often do you reflect with longing on “time in a bottle” moments from you past? 
Things like your first of anything…date, kiss, dance, movie, road trip, “A” grade, girl or boy friend and on and on.  As you reflect, you are emotionally tugged to try and recapture the magic of those moments.  You don’t want to lose them!  You want to keep them!
Here’s your problem, however. 
If you actually could stop time in those moments, you would be, in effect, trapped in them.  You would have put a cage around your life, and you would not be able to escape to your future.
Would you really want that to happen? 
Put that in perspective.  Think about just one of that magic, “time in a bottle,” moments from your deep past.  Got it in your mind? 
Do you feel it?
Now, think ahead from that moment and remember three of the most magical, “time in a bottle” moments since then.  Do you see them in your mind’s eye? 
Do you feel them deep in your heart?
Okay.  Would you want to sacrifice experiencing those three additional moments because you stopped time and caged your life in that earlier moment?  I think not!
Given those experiences, here is what is likely to happen to you as you refuse to be trapped in the cage of the past.  Your tick, tock progress along the non-spatial continuum (time) of your life will deliver ever more magical moments.
If you wouldn’t want to miss the experience of the three moments you just remembered, think about those that are yet to come!
Yes, time in a bottle has a romantic ring to it when you think about it as that moment you wish you could have back and live in forever.
Here’s how to think outside of that cage, however, and still enjoy the rest of your life experiences.
Enjoy those “time in a bottle” moments!  Don’t deny them or try to suppress them!  They are part of what makes you who you are.
On the other hand, don’t obsess and live in them.  Reflect on them and smile or cry; capture what they taught you; and use that knowledge as you continue to enjoy the present and your future.
Using that progression of thinking and action, will allow you not only some “time in a bottle” but “time on a magic carpet” to an unlimited future.
What is a key thing you have learned from a “time in a bottle” moment that helps you focus regarding “time on a magic carpet” to your future?
Please share your thoughts by commenting below.  
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Thank you.

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