Dee Hathaway

There is a clock that hangs on the wall of my office.. it’s a Hathaway & Co Timekeeper (one of a kind, just like me!) and was custom designed and built just for me (just like you!). It’s quite elegant and complements the room and the furniture (you know, hey desk.. you’re lookin’ good!) like any wall clock should.

But I think it’s broken.

Sometimes I hear the seconds tic-toc away and picture a big giant pendulum swinging across a vast amount of space… you can practically hear the swoosh as the seconds drag on and on and on. And that still happens sometimes, but mostly I want to take the batteries out of the stupid thing because it can’t tell time right.

Like when I’m doing something I really like, it’ll say 7:30, and then 7 minutes later it says it’s 8:20. That ain’t right. :-/ David Choi said it best… Oh clock, Just stop for a second.

So I started pondering (really, is anybody surprised by that anymore?) why time goes by so fast sometimes and so slowly other times, and how the heck do you hold on to it? (that time-freeze button/ray-gun would really come in handy sometimes).

So I hit the ol’ interwebs and talked to some science buddies of mine (that’s not true, I don’t have science buddies), and came up with a few different opinions on why time moves like it does. Here’s what I found out.

1. Penguins are a timeless classic. Always cute.
2. Time flies when you’re having fun.
3. I have a lot of fun.
4. I blame you.

I did find a common theme through a lot of the looking that I did, and I wanted to share that with you (cuz I want to share everything with you). What I found the most was that people think time goes by faster for adults than children. And adults look forward with dread (what? really? Remember, these are not my opinions. I’m just the messenger right now.) A very common explanation is that adults tend to do the same things over and over and over (and over, we get it)… wake up, go to work, come home, go to sleep… and they do it so much and so often that the sameness blends together. Months and years and same. So, that school of thought (I hated school. boring) is that as you get older, there are more things in your life that you dread, and that affects time.

And you might say, “but Dee, time seems to slow down for the dreadful things, but you said time moves faster as you get older and dread more. What’s the deal?”

(Well, keep your shirt on for a minute, I’ll get to it!)

According to some, time only seems faster in the good things because you spend so much time dreading the next bad thing, and something you dread will get to you much faster than something you don’t.

And I thought that was pretty sad. And I thought that was pretty typical. And I know some people who live in that world. I myself used to live the dreaded world. I used to dread the coming of Monday morning so much that I was starting to dread Sunday evening, just because it was a precursor to Monday. I look forward to Mondays now, very much. I love that 4:30 alarm, the trip to the gym and getting the week off to a ‘running’ start. (oh cmon.  that was funny)  I even face the day with a smile! (a smiley-face, you might say) (or you might not, whatever)

(OK. You can take the shirt off now.)

But the world is all new to the young, and I would say, the young at heart. So much to do and learn and see and take in. All that new requires all of your senses to be involved to process the truckloads of information about new events. You look forward to everything with great anticipation, because it’s such a full sensory scenario. You can remember the sounds, smells, feel, probably even temperature of some of the firsts, the first times that you did or experienced something, and you remember those no matter how quickly they went by, because you were in the moment. You weren’t thinking about tomorrow’s schedule or where to park or how much shoes cost. (or were you?) Because you were focused on what was going on at that very minute. Because you had That connection.

I’m not sure that I completely buy in to the idea that having things new makes things slow down. (the racer has always been fast) Recent experience has proven that just isn’t the case. I’ve been through so many wonderful, new things lately, and time has flown by so fast. The good times race and the time between crawls. But it all seems to go much more quickly than it used to. (maybe because I like it all so much more now?) There might be something to be said about how the experience we have, our time in life, affects our perception of time more. And it’s just human nature that things we enjoy will seem to go faster. It’s what separates us from animals (that and text messaging).

I think that again, like most things in life, attitude, expectation and focus play a really big part. I don’t have a solution for the time-warp problem, but I do think there is something we can do about the way we remember those times, and maybe make at least the memory seem brighter, and newer, and gooder.

And what is that you ask? (you did ask, right?) Well, here’s what I propose we do.

Let’s celebrate every first, take time to notice and enjoy every new level, every new experience, every new day, every new scenario. Let’s take our time as we move through them, and give them all the attention that something as wonderful as ‘new’ deserves. When we have a ‘first’ moment, let’s make sure to be fully there, noticing the sounds and the smells and the sights and the emotions and the way it feels. And let’s remind each other, often, of how wonderful new, and first, and This, and any, and Us, really is. We may not be able to slow down time, but I wonder if we can make the memories of it seem like we did.

And let’s get some duct tape and teach that clock a lesson!

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Hey did ya see that sky today?  Talk about blue.

Ya I don’t even want to go into how long it’s been since the last post. I suffer from non-posting guilt enough on my own (if fact, entirely on my own). But it has been another very busy, and very fun-filled week. Have you noticed that I seem to have a lot of fun? Well, I do and it’s quite awesome!

As you know, Fridays are Yoga days at the gym (you did know that, right?). And by that I mean I do yoga on Fridays, not that everybody has to. Well, this past Friday was another sinew stretching fun-filled hour of of let’s see how many abnormal positions we can put our body in.. complete with a pose called pigeon. I’ve done this pose before (not without a high level of pain and inadequacy, I assure you), or so I thought. Normally I’ve done this pose (both times) with one leg forward, bent a little bit and other leg back. There is some bending and stretching involved, but overall it’s a nice little stretchy pose.

Well Friday the instructor added a new twist/fold/staple/mutilate. It was something like lift your back leg, extend your front arm over and grab the hand with your back arm and loop your toes into the elbow of your back arm and wrap your back leg around your neck three times. I can do that pose, but not on purpose and it has to be followed immediately by a trip to the emergency room.

So while I lay there watching the rest of the class do that pose (I didn’t even come close), I started thinking about my center and my intention (cuz you can always go back to that if you can’t keep up… teacher said so!) and balance and harmony. Isn’t that what yoga, and life, is all about? Concentrating on what gives your life purpose and meaning and happiness and letting joy and rapture (yes, really, still with the melodrama) into your heart and soul? (the correct answer is yes)

So what is it that gives you happiness? what centers you? (you can say it’s me… I won’t be embarrassed)  :)  Well, I suppose that’s different for everyone and you will have to find that for yourself.  But I can tell you what centers me, what calms me and let’s me keep my awesomeness.  And I can make a suggestion…

I very recently had an experience that shook my confidence (gasp) and made me doubt, however briefly, my own tremendousness. (I can’t believe that passed spell-check) And what, you ask, did I do to bring myself back to my usual state of awesomeness? (go on, ask)  First, I worked out at the gym until I thought my spleen would fall out…  (okay, that helps, but it’s not the real answer.  keep reading.  it gets better.  it has to).  Actually, it was focusing on the good things that I have, the things that mean most to me and bring me happiness… the things that fill up my senses (like a walk in a forest), and make me feel so good that I might actually tremble a little.  My friends, my words, my music, my gym membership (yes, I’m addicted) and my you.  And knowing that I have you here, waiting patiently for me to say something wise and insightful (ya, keep waiting, it could happen any day now). That you keep coming back for more is proof that you like me. I think you are awesome too.

And I am fully convinced that focusing on something good is what brings more good. And more is gooder.

The best way to accomplish an improved environment is to focus upon the best things about where you currently are until you flood your own vibrational patterns of thought with appreciation, and in that changed vibration, you can then allow the new-and-improved conditions and circumstances to come into your experience.

Look for good things about where you are, and in your state of appreciation, you lift all self-imposed limitations (and all limitations are self-imposed) and you free yourself for the receiving of wonderful things.

— Abraham

So thank you for being solid and real (proving that I’m not delusional!), for supporting me and being my focus.  For being here whenever I need you.  For helping me get out of my boring old poses and teaching me challenging  new ones.  For listening when I rant and pretending that what I write here is entertaining and interesting.  Thank you for loving dee!

And whenever you need someone to talk to, someone to lean on, know that you can count on me.  I would love to be your balance, the one thing that is constant in your life, the place where you land.  I’m your biggest fan, and I’ll always be here for you!

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If you’re any kind of stalker at all (and I concede that you have, at times, outstalked even me), then you know that I went to see the ol’ hometown over the weekend. You know, catch up with the family, eat some delicious foodages, spend too much time in the airport. The usual spring venture – fly up early on Saturday, come back even earlier on Sunday. (I like fast)

As you probably know (and should if you have ever traveled anywhere), the night before departure is a short one, what with the last minute packing and stuff… and the morning of is an early one cuz you have to get to the airport 3 days early to get through security. I can deal with all of that because I’m used to getting up rather early anyway (some people get 15 minutes of fame.. I get 15 minutes of sleep!). But other than the usual distractions waking me in the middle of the night (I’m a light sleeper), I usually sleep pretty well.

Ya not this time.

At about 1:30 in the morning I heard a very loud, very annoying, very startling ‘BEEP’. and then nothing. And about 5 minutes later, there was a double beep. Yup the ol’ ‘BEEP BEEP” (and I assure you, it was not a roadrunner type cutesy beep). and then nothing. So I lay there waiting for the next beep, or to drift off to sleep, and was promising myself that if it beeped again, I would get up and fix whatever it was and if it didn’t go off again, I would donate all my free time to charity and live a good clean life (oh the promises we’ll make for some sleep).

Well, it beeped again (so much for clean living) and I fell out of bed. (It wasn’t really a jump, or even a climb, so… I’m gonna go with fell) I knew from experience that the beep was the pending death of a smoke alarm and not an actual fire. The problem with the intermittent beeping of a smoke alarm is that it echos through the house – and you can’t be sure which alarm it is until you get it to beep while you are standing under it. Fortunately (if there is a fortunately in this story), it was the alarm in the bedroom and I found it on the first try.

So there is Dee in his sleeping attire (avert your eyes, ladies) dragging the giant foldable ladder out of the garage around both cars and through the house, then setting the beast up in the living room. Not a pretty sight and not a quiet activity (but then, the smoke alarm wasn’t really quiet either). And as i was disconnecting the soon to be dead alarm, it let out a scream, which must have done something in the wiring because all the other alarms in the house answered. I thought maybe it was calling for reinforcements and I would soon be attacked by mutant smoke alarms. (it was 2:00 in the morning…)

I did manage to get the alarm undone, disconnected, debatteried and tucked away without any damage to myself or the alarm. And the whole thing only took about half an hour (writing this post about it is actually taking way more time than that) and I was able to get back to sleep, right before getting up to go to the airport.

My brother told me the problem was that Arizona doesn’t have daylight savings time – so we don’t know when to change the alarm batteries. (haha) I did find the problem when I was hooking the alarm back up… just a loose wire. So I checked the wiring in all the alarms (yes, I turned the breaker off before working on them; safety first!), and replaced the batteries. And while I was doing that, I started thinking about the alarms that go off in our own lives (you didn’t expect a post without me thinking, did you?), the episodes we might have, and how best to get through them.

Our instincts are there to keep us safe – our alarms should go off if we need to get out, when there’s trouble. That’s by design and it’s a good thing. We should just expect with such an awesome system that once in a while there is going to be a false beep – an alarm for no apparent reason. Maybe the sirens go off just to tell us that we need to be checked out a little, to make sure we are properly grounded maybe. And it’s good to have someone there to reset us. Preferably someone who won’t panic and isn’t afraid of the noise.

So here’s the deal. You can always count on the ol’ Dee to help you quiet those alarms in life. If you just need to have your batteries recharged/replaced or if you’re in need of a full rewiring, I’m your man. I’m even good for a little checkup once in a while. and I promise not to panic or run. I’m here, all you have to do is beep at me.

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Guess who has another gym story for you! I knew you would be so excited. (you can just pretend if you’re not) I’ve been saving this one up for a week, just waiting for the right opportunity to share it. But it’s really not that exciting, and the opportunity hasn’t really come up in casual conversation, so I’m just going to get it out there.

It’s a treadmill story. No, I didn’t fall off the treadmill again (so stop laughing). I was actually on the elliptical machines (like cross country skiing without poles) which in my gym are directly behind the treadmills. I watched a would-be exerciser moving from machine to machine, punching buttons like crazy but never actually getting a belt moving or walking or running. Not even really get an opportunity to be thrown off the back of the thing. Well I was a little intrigued (and mostly bored and stuck on an elliptical machine. what else did I have to do?) and tried to figure out what the dealio was. Cleaning? not really. Quality Assurance? Well, not a lot of testing going on… hmmm…

Can I make a short story drag out or what?!

Then I noticed the message that was on all of the treadmills. You know, in that scrolly LED part in the middle that tells you you’re breathing too heavy and wants to know how old you are and how much you weigh and what specifically did you have for breakfast. The message read “Replace Emergency Stop Switch”.

Evidently somebody has gone around to all the treadmills and pulled the emergency stop buttons off so they wouldn’t start up. You know, the little magnetic thingies (technical jargon) that clip on to you to turn off the machine in case you were actually zipped off the back. Of course nobody wears them so they’re mostly to frustrate people who can’t make the machines work. This person finally caught on to what was happening and got a treadmill started. I can’t tell you if they actually read the scrolly LED or if they just found a machine that didn’t have the switch removed. (I would have just given up and moved on to the bikes)

So as I listened to my fabulous new playlist the thoughts started whirling around in my head like a thing that’s really whirly, and I started thinking about how we do that in our own lives. (ha! caught you off guard there! no? you were expecting that? hmmm) How often do we have the emergency stop switch removed and not even realize it?! (lemme ‘splain)

By now you’re very much on board with me for the paths, and the intention and distraction thing because you’re very much a part of it (yes, you are). And it’s becoming very plain to us all that part of that is knowing that you can have whatever you want, whatever you need. You just have to make that know and let it happen. However (oh the inevitable however) it occurs to me that there are possibly a couple more things that we need to take into consideration here. And I’m going to tell you one of them (you have to wait for the other).

If we are going to use the planets, the stars, the universe, Chuck Norris, ourselves, deehathaway.com or anything else to get what we want, we have to make sure the brake isn’t on. The things we want aren’t going to spin up if we have pulled the emergency switch! And how are we ever going to run our lives our way if we can’t even get the intention started?

So here’s what we are going to do. You and me. You ready? Cuz I need you to be ready… Let’s take a close look at those things that we want, get real clear. Take a look at our focus and our hearts and make sure there are no emergency brakes rusted on, make sure there are no emergency switches left unplugged. There might even be some that we’re not aware of! Let’s make sure there are no conflicting signals. (I’ll look for a scrolly LED, you push some buttons) Just let go, let it happen. We can have everything.

The treadmill of intention is easy to operate. We just have to turn it on and let it spin.

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