Time is a strange thing.

It accumulates like pocket change – slowly, heavily.

Until one day, you count it all up, and discover there is so much more than you remembered collecting. Days pass unnoticed, turning into weeks, that suddenly become months, and then you realize a whole year has somehow slid through your consciousness.  

And this seems impossible because didn’t that just happen yesterday?

But then you think about all those days that struggled and fought to last forever, that passed so painfully slow they seemed like they would never fucking end. The light and airy ones, however, are sometimes hard to recollect. They floated by without resistance, smooth and easy. Time on those days is slippery.

Time is a constant. Always with you, whether you can see it or not, he is there. It waits for no one, defines most everything, and is never experienced in the same way by any two people.

You can waste it, you can try to buy it, you can squander it, you can lose it. It’s not very often that we use it wisely, because when the time is up there always seems to be something that we didn’t have enough time to do.
 
VMG is a sailing term that stands for Velocity Made Good.

It is defined as the speed at which you are making progress towards your goal. This differs from boat speed as this calculation recognizes that it is near impossible to sail directly towards a destination. A boat can only sail close to the wind, pointing directly at it will stall the sails and slow the boat until you are ‘caught in irons,’ fully stopped. Therefore, all forward progress does not equate to progress toward a goal. Some momentum is sacrificed along the way.

This is not the same as getting side tracked or distracted, but rather acknowledges that there are forces beyond our control that we have to contend with and account for. Our paths are never as direct as we would wish them to be. It is always necessary to make adjustments and change tacks to reach a goal. Adjustments that take time and effort. Change that ask you to have faith in journey.

But I take comfort in the wordage. Velocity Made Good, it acknowledges progress, however small it may feel.

Speed (velocity) and Time equal Distance. It may not be as far as you wish it to be, either from your start point or towards your end goal, but progress is made regardless.

Love,
H…&S

Looking
forward only,
Unknowing how
to turn back

-p.77, A Zen Forest, Sayings of the Masters