It's no secret that the idea of time is only really as old as trains. We didn't need any o'clock until then, at least. In the short period of time since trains were invented and now, haven't we all become slaves to time?
One of the things that I think really brought me down when I worked at the bank was how much influence time had over me. I had to be at work at 7 am, I'd leave at 3:30, I was forced to sit at my desk until I was told I could go on a break. I did that 5 days in a row and then I got a weekend off. There's a song that Holly and I used to hate in college by Phantom Planet called "Turn Smile Shift Repeat." I can't speak for her, but for me it was the monotony represented in this song that drove me crazy. When I worked at the bank, my life was this song.
When I started to work at Starbucks this changed. It was a bit of a difficult adjustment at first and I struggled to adapt to it. Everything, every day was different. Days that used to mean so much to me now meant nothing. Okay, not nothing in a negative way... but I guess I mean to say that suddenly there was no such thing as time to me. I realized recently that Starbucks allowed me to abandon the notion of time.
I recently realized (I'm ashamed to admit this is because of a commercial for IHOP that I even came to this realization) that time no longer exists for me and that it has afforded me a great deal of freedom. I don't live my "week" waiting for the "weekend". Nothing starts or stops. Everything just continues. I haven't felt that "weekend" feeling in months and it's spectacular. As lovely as the weekend-freedom felt, it always ended and that was depressing to me. Now I place no bit of time on a pedastal. Time just... well... isn't. Weekends don't exist, weekdays don't exist. Time doesn't pass because it's not real.
The idea of releasing our attachments to notions has always been one that I thought was going to be slightly out of my reach. A lofty goal to keep and I certainly didn't know how to do it. How do you let go of these notions that are so ingrained in your being? I think it was almost by force that Starbucks made me do it, because I don't remember ever doing anything myself. Regardless of how it happened, it did happen and I feel one thing for certain: a little bit of freedom. Like I'm moving with the natural rhythm of life instead of a man-made idea of what life is like.
Like I'm literally going with the flow
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