Significance of Self-Exploration of Time with the Me-Dot in the Sand
Time slips away like grains of sand never to return again. Robin Sharma
“The golden moments in the stream of life rush past us, and we see nothing but sand; the angels come to visit us, and we only know them when they are gone.” George Eliot
Have you ever let sand trickle through your fingers? This is a common idiom that moments of time pass quickly, not to be reversed except in an hourglass, not a lifetime.
In some ways sand is an interesting medium to explore the significant measurement of time even in its duality of dominance and brevity.
The tighter you grasp a handful of sand, the faster it runs through your fingers.
You can leave footprints in the sand to show your journey, too easily swept away by circumstances like weather.
Shifting sands can show the transience of time, always changing and unpredictable.
Time is not as simple as watching a clock, calendar or any measurement by counting numbers. There is more content between the numbers that matters more. Call it quality more than quantity, if you wish. Call it experience without the numbers.
Let’s imagine that drawings in the sand can show both the simplicity and complexities of the passage of time. What if they can give an overview of a long life span and sand traps to avoid? What if it’s better to catch a young ebb tide before it escapes into places you don’t want it to go into?
So here’s something to try. Find some clean sand at the beach. No beach, then a lot or sand box will do. Use your finger as a tool or a small stick.
First imagine that life is this beach … clean, innocent, unmarked, wide open to any imprint, any track, and any experience you want to give it.
Press down into the sand to make a little hollow interruption responding with a slight ridge … a small dimple in the expanse of the beach.
Call this your Me-dot. It counts as one moment, one step at any time. Try not to make a quick , crazy connection to a Selfie moment.
Draw a square shape with a closed frame. This contains your Yesterdays … it can’t be redone or rebuilt or changed.
Draw a circle or spiral shape. This is your Today. It is very alive and sensory; can make choices where to go, roll around here or there, spin sometimes out of control without boundaries. This is how you live today … freedom to move, rise, swing, fall, be joyful and be moody. And, after Today’s spinning, it settles into a frame, a solid block, a yesterday when moments can no longer be changed.
Of course, the point is that these blocks from yesterday become the base for a new circle for another day. Can you see how your Yesterday’s frames will support your Today’s actions which in turn will affect your Future as well?
Now for your Future, draw some open-ended lines. They spring around the today’s circle of action. They are new branches or new directions … new ideas, unknown, exciting, may even be fearful … they have yet to be discovered from only a starting point with no end point as yet.
But here’s the point. These lines are interconnected … future lines branch out from your present which as you can see have roots to your past. In other words your future choices are connected to the present but can also be drawn from your past. This is the visual web of life.
Now press deeper into your Me-Dot. As it deepens, note the deeper rims weeping upon itself. Can you see how by stirring this hole even briefly the entire web or timeline can be affected? Can you see how too much focus on Self makes the beach less relevant and undiscovered?
Does this make sense to you?
Make your sand drawing animated by connecting the blocks, the circles, the lines … the yesterdays, todays and tomorrows … the past, present and future … all life experiences swirled together. Your actions will become consequences, good choices sponsor good outcomes, and mistakes can become deep flaws embedded in the past. One sad mistaken choice can erupt into permanent scars.
Are you feeling any connections?
Scoop up a handful of sand to trickle down into a new impression on the ground. Do you honestly think that any new experience could override the past and present with no more negative feelings, no more bad choices, a future untainted? Life can move from a beach to a bitch too easily.
Only time will tell what can happen next. With one one sweep of your hand your Me-Dot and life web can be wiped out. The sand returns to just sand on a beach at the edge of lapping water with brilliant sparkles. Who really cares?
My hope is that more teenagers and young people would try this self-exploration to draw their line in the sand and set their own footprints firmly, proudly and positively on their given existence to withstand the shifting forces of a modern world.
“There isn’t time, so brief is life, for bickerings, apologies, heartburnings, callings to account. There is only time for loving, and but an instant, so to speak, for that.” Mark Twain
Sincerely,
Annemarie Berukoff
“I was 14 years old, for goodness sake, reacting to common enough social norms with or without control. What kind of superpower can help to make better directions into the future? Is it my fault or not? Is anybody at fault? Was my dear Celtie at fault in some way? Did it sentence me to a life on social media, obedient to flagrant displays and copycat memes, followed by susceptibility to drug dependence?” excerpt: Teen Girl Faces Time in the Sand
