We are not afraid of time… we are afraid of what it reveals to us.
Every year that passes does not add age as much as it dispels illusions, including the illusion of having ample time and that endless opportunities still lie ahead, and that procrastination is a solution, that opportunities are waiting, and that what we don't do today can be compensated tomorrow. Time neither threatens us nor explains itself, it just passes, then leaves us with a series of inescapable questions:
How old are we?
How was this age consumed?
What have we done with our lives? A question we need to stop and consider.
Today, we live in a fast-paced era filled with pressures and demands, not giving us a true chance to reflect, yet society judges us based on outcomes. We run incessantly, we accomplish, we accumulate, we fill our schedules, only to suddenly discover that we weren't really present in our lives. Time has not stolen from us; we willingly handed ourselves over... to pleasantries, to procrastination, and to a life that doesn't resemble us, but we continued living it out of fear of change and societal scrutiny.
In the early stages of life, we squander time without feeling guilty, we postpone decisive decisions, we prolong relationships which we deeply know are wrong and inappropriate and consume our lifetimes with multiple pretexts to comfort ourselves, convincing ourselves that there's still plenty of time and alternatives available. We act as if time is a never-ending credit, and as if opportunities always return in the same form. Then comes a pivotal moment, usually quietly, without drama or announcements, in which we ask ourselves in genuine astonishment,
Where has all the time gone?
Here begins the real clash, not with time, but with self.
We discover that more than failure, it’s the hesitation that drained our lives; not the losses, but the postponed choices. We realize that time doesn't punish anyone, nor does it reward anyone; it uncovers everyone. It reveals who lived consciously, who lived passively, and who replaced the meaning and essence of life with societal-imposed struggles and illusions over time.
Time is not an enemy, but it is merciless to those who live it unconsciously.
As we age, we do not become weaker as commonly believed, but rather more selective. Our priorities change, we reduce our social circles, we withdraw from noise and relationships that add no value, and we understand, albeit too late, that inner peace is not a mere psychological luxury, but essential for staying coherent.
The real debate is that old age does not begin in the body, but in surrender.
At the moment we stop questioning, choosing, confronting, the most dangerous thing time does to a person is not to add a new year to their age, but to leave them empty of meaning, burdened with regret, surrounded by a life imposed by societal traditions and socio-economic conditions that they never consciously chose.
In the end, time is not as open as we like to believe, nor as generous as we deceive ourselves to be; it is limited, cannot be preserved nor recovered, and what passes by cannot be compensated. Every minute wasted does not return, and every postponement is directly deducted from the life’s balance without notice, for age is not measured by the number of years we've lived, but by the number of times we've faced ourselves honestly, and chose to live our lives, not lives designed to please others
