How to Make Time Stand Still

The days break and run and I crane my neck as they pass. Sometimes all I feel is the afterbreeze of a moment gone by. They tell me it means I’m getting old and I always laugh and agree. I thought it was just a tease…but science is telling me different.

“Time is this rubbery thing,” says neuroscience professor David Eagleman in an interview with New Yorker journalist Burkhard Bilger. “It stretches out when you really turn your brain resources on, and when you say, ‘Oh, I got this, everything is as expected,’ it shrinks up.”

The amygdala is the part of the brain that seats emotion and memory, he goes on to say. When something exciting happens—like a threat to your life, the amygdala seems to kick into overdrive, recording every tiny detail of the experience. The more elaborate the memory, the longer the moment seems to last. “This explains why we think that time speeds up when we grow older,” Eagleman says—why childhood summers seem to go on forever, while old age slips by while we’re dozing. The more familiar the world becomes, the less information your brain writes down, and the more quickly time seems to pass. (The New Yorker, Burkhard Bilger)

Life is familiar. So we do the only thing we can to slow the moments.

We run away together. 

Columbus in May

If every day is, well…everyday, then--shouldn’t we? When our spirits grow tired and our hearts drag the ground—isn’t it only natural to seek adventure? We do. My sweetheart takes my hand and we go. Because he knows what the scientists keep trying to prove.

Adam Galinsky, professor at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University says getting away from the familiar gives one the distance needed to gain a new perspectiveon everyday life. He even has evidence that immersing oneself in another culture—moving to another country—boosts creativity.

We don’t have time to travel abroad. We have just one lonely night. 

Shopping at the North Market

 It stretches long. 

Dinner at Gordon Biersch--with fresh-brewed lager.

It’s not another culture, but it’s different to us. We walk the streets of a different city; let our senses awaken to the unfamiliar.

And love is young again. Time moves slow. 

What makes time slow for you?

Take me away with you—let us hurry!
   Let the king bring me into his chambers. (Song of Solomon 1:4)

Jeff checks out the hot sauce.

At the North Market

At the Book Loft

Some of the cheese at Katzinger's Deli

Joining with Jen and the Soli Deo Gloria sisters: