WHAT DAY IS IT?

 I have to start this post with an apology – I have only just realised the date and that I should have posted yesterday. I hope our webmaster will kindly allow this post today instead (but please feel free to delete if I am treading on the 15^th’s toes).

I’m not having a good week with time. A few days ago, I was in the bathroom when my husband called through the door:

“Don’t you have a hairdresser’s appointment today?”

“No, that’s on Wednesday,” I replied.

“It is Wednesday.”

And my appointment was ten minutes ago. *

Maybe it’s finishing my course and not having a regular routine anymore that has thrown me. Maybe it’s brain fog from the ‘time of life’ I’m in. There’s an episode of Doctor Who where he refers to ‘wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey stuff’. My current relationship with time is distinctly wibbly-wobbly.

I had a reputation at work of poor timekeeping. I think it’s easy to blame tardiness on laziness or lack of care for other’s commitments. But for me, I believe it was because I found it so hard to get everything done before I could move on for the next appointment.  I am a ‘completer-finisher’ and hate leaving things hanging. One thing I’ve learned through my course is that poetry is often better for being left open at the end, unresolved even, so the reader can engage more.

Ironically, on the MA, I’ve had a completely different reputation: of doing assignments early and handing every submission in before the deadline. But that’s because I’ve had the time with no overburden of too many demands competing for it. Trains with tables on the commute home helped too.

I’ve sometimes wondered what God’s relationship with time is like? I mean the whole eternity and omnipresent thing must give such a different perspective to our tiny human one. Maybe it’s a bit like being an author and knowing the ending; you’re still working how to get there but your characters keep trying to take over.

Is God a completer-finisher? I thought the Creation story was evidence of that but maybe that’s more of a ‘sets in motion and wait to see where it goes’ approach before He finds He has to step in, frequently, but still leaving that space for our engagement in the work.

Thank goodness He is as forgiving as my hairdresser and your kind selves.

Liz Manning lives in Cornwall and has recently finished a Creative Writing MA at Plymouth University. Her dissertation was a visual poetry collection, (a mixture of words and art) which explored the idea of reclaiming and reshaping difficult times through faith and making. She’s currently trying to figure out what happens next but it will include writing.

She blogs regularly at https://thestufflifeismadeofblog.wordpress.com/  and has a new website in development at lizmanning.me