Wednesday 29 May 2013

Where Does The Time Go? A Metaphysical Blog, by Shawn M. Cohen

Time by Alan Parsons Project from the Album, "Turn of a Friendly Card" 1980.

I have not written on my blog for months, in fact since December last year, 2012.
 I started with great enthusiasm which is so true to my Aries nature and then I got distracted with other things. So typical of my sign!  But I awoke this morning, a rainy, bleak, cold London morning at the end of May(!) with this song "Time" in my head. I could not even remember who wrote it all those years ago but I knew the song...the words were circling in my head..."Time, keeps flowing like a river to the sea..."
    It may be because I am thinking about my teenage daughter, now age 16, who will be graduating in June from secondary school (or what I called High School,being American) and then going to her Prom with her boyfriend.

"Time marches on, Time waits for no one"...wasn't she just a little girl all dressed in pink as we walked hand in hand to her ballet classes? Time...where did it go? 

  And like many people my age...(another story, my age!)  my own mother is coming up to her 89th birthday in November! How she outlived so many others is beyond me! Her time may be shorter but she is still here, amazingly enough.
   Within all these time markers;  our age, our children growing up, our parents becoming old...there is the sense of what is it all about? I can't help but look back. It is all part of this mindset of people my age...what is my age? I don't feel any older then when I was attending a Led Zeppelin  concert in Pittsburgh, Pa., my hometown, with my best friends in 1973! I was just about 17 then...close to what age my daughter is now. But oh, how the world has changed since then!! " Take me back to the time of my youth," sings Led Zeppelin..."take me back. " But you can not go back...not even when you are helping your daughter with her Prom dress!   My mind begins to compute the rationale for the time gone by:
You were a hippie, you did not go to your Prom in 1974. Your boyfriend, having graduated 2 years before you and on your insistence , was waiting for you in Los Angeles, California where The Door's* music was blasting out of open top red Corvettes or sunshine yellow VW Beetles cruising down  Sunset Strip. In your time, your way shower was Joni Mitchell who was  singing about the Ladies of the Canyon,and expressing so many feelings and you could not wait to get to Laurel Canyon just to see it for yourself and by the way, Crosby, Stills and Nash were touring with or without Neil Young then. Either way, you were sure they all lived in L.A.and that is where the action was, that was what cool was all about. One of your best girlfriends, who had moved out there before you and now also your boyfriend from Pittsburgh were both there and you could not wait until High School graduation just so you could be there, hanging out with them both. You did not want to go to some old fashioned corny Prom! So you left the day after High School graduation, leaving friends and family behind and went to L.A. to live, 3000 miles away, age 18. You were so brave, looking back....but nobody mentioned this to you at the time. By the way, remember when you wanted to be a writer?? 

Time is a funny thing, it distorts and it reverberates. Memories are the sanctuary of Time. They are the Akashic Records in our brains. They measure everything against our own experiences. In that time, I was this way. Now, in this time, I am that way. But have I grown? Am I a Grown UP? Has my Soul developed and matured? Am I better than I once was or am I in denial, just chugging along, day after day, hamster on a wheel of endless time until one day the wheel ceases to turn??  Can we really say? If not us, then who? Who will speak for us and about us after we are gone and will it be the truth or just pretty lies? One thing is for sure, making my way into my life's journey, the path I chose, the people I chose to share it with...some friends, some enemies, some within my own family...it has never been an "easy time". I was wondering what my so called "retirement" years will be like?? Right now, as it stands, there are no plans and no ways to retire. I did not choose that path, you know, paying into a retirement fund, gold watch and all...no, not for me. I chose to be a way shower, a light worker, a pioneer of consciousness as my spiritual helpers like to call me. Ha! I laugh. You're kidding me, right? No, they say..no, that is what you are... a born communicator! Ha, Ha, bloody Ha!Ha!  But they insist. Ok, I get it, I did walk a totally unfamiliar path. After that boyfriend died, I needed to know. I saw his spirit. It was all too much and too shocking for words. I needed to know.Nothing and no one would stop me. Searching for the truth; Why we are here? Do we go on afterwards? What is the purpose to life? All those big questions. It was my wish to know and I did what it took to know. I put in the TIME into my spiritual seeking, education and practice and finally my awakening.  My TIME was used up in travelling the world, not all of it, but a good chunk of it, exploring, researching, falling in and out of love, gaining experiences, knowledge and helping others, serving others, being there for those who needed me, being the spiritual teacher, counselor and adviser I came to be.  Those times, looking back, were some of my happiest. That Pioneering Aries energy was at an all time high. Active and happy and free. The Metaphysics school I found in California in 1980, which was the same time this song by Alan Parsons Project came out. Funny that, eh? Time comes full circle. My daughter will be home soon from her revision studies for her GCSE's. I had my SATS when I was her age. But she and I live in London and she goes to school in the British system. Who would have ever figured I would have ended up here? 29 years here now and that is a long time, in anyone's calculations! I came here at age 29 in my first Saturn Return*, in 1985 and soon it will be my Second Saturn Return* at age 58....I have lived half of my life in America, where I am from, and half of it in Britain. How is it possible so much time has gone by? But it did. I can only hope I have used it wisely.
 Well, would you look at the time!? I have to get ready. My daughter is coming home soon from school and we are going Prom shopping and I am not quite ready. Time, also to feed our cat, Romeo. I must leave you now to ponder the meaning of time in your own life. May it be memorable.

Addendum: On May 20, 2013, the great Door's *founder and keyboardist Ray Manzarek passed to that great Gig in the Sky, age 74, from bile cancer. When our youth Icons slowly move on to the next journey, "breaking on through to the Other Side" it can be a shock, a wake up call. One can not help but remember how much influence one little rock band had in memories to one's youth..and maybe even the sound track to one's whole life. RIP Ray and thanks for the music and memories! "When the music's over, turn out the lights." Jim Morrison and the Doors.

The Saturn Return* happens when you are roughly age 29. It happens to everyone about that time, a 2 and a half to 3 year process, happening once every 29 years when the planet Saturn in your own Natal Astrology Chart, returns to the exact location it was when you were born. Saturn is the great planet and marker of TIME and MATURITY and it also has influences for Karma and placement in career, even parenting. I wrote about it because it was the thing in 1985 which put me where I obviously needed to be and my own Saturn is in Sagittarius, in my 10th house of my natal astrology chart. This is the house of career and Sagittarius is a sign who explores truth (key words: I SEEK) and the love of travel and foreign climes. Henceforth, I ended up teaching Metaphysics in a foreign country, many in fact, and living here. That we get another shot at it again in our Second Saturn Return* is a way for us to take stock, see what else is left to do, or get a second chance at doing what we have not been able to do thus far.  This allows us to get that long lost dream going again or to change directions completely and have a do over, a new beginning or finally get the accolades and rewards for services rendered to a long career path. Many may become Grandparents in this time and I can add this is true of some of my friends from whom I grew up with. It is surely a time of second chances, if you have done the "work" and put the "time" in, which Saturn, ruler of both, will justly give (finally!)  rewards for!

(C) Shawn M. Cohen    
May 30, 2013 London, UK.
Fair usage act for video of  "TIME" , no copyright infringement intended.

22 comments:

  1. It has been said that Time is both a hunter that stalks us and a companion that goes along on our individual journeys. I have found this to be more true than untrue as life goes by and your prescient column reflects that brilliantly in its observations.

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  2. Thanks Rick, so much for your comments! That is a great line too, and sometimes I have felt "hunted" and its companion.:-) I think many people born in the 1950's, 1960's, even the 1940's would most certainly be seeing reflections of time gone by now...and what does it all mean? Music has always been a marker of time for me and isn't it just grand that so many from our youth are still out there, still touring, and yes, sad about the ones we have lost, too. Thanks so much for stopping by and sharing! Shawn xx

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  3. This has to be one of the most meaningful and poignant blogs that I have read thus far as it relates to my life. Thank you so much for sharing your journeys through time with us. I savored every word of this blog in my mind and heart and left me pondering on what I need to do with the rest of the precious time that I have left on this planet. And will I be remembered for something meaningful that I contributed to the world? I hope so.

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    1. Bernadette is my confirmation name that is my handle here..... Giovanna...

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    2. Giovanna (Bernadette!) It is this very question.."what or how will I be remembered?" which is so very important. It can make or break us. Did we do what we "came here to do"? And then it spins off from there...do we even know our purpose? If we don't then when are we going to find out and if we do and we are not living it as we had hoped, what can we do about it with the time we have left? I am so glad my blog and the questions it raised helped you and you connected to it so well. Many blessings and much happiness in the now and the years to come! May they be filled with great memories!! xx Shawn

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  4. I never wanted to go to the prom but never made it out to California as I had wished. It's true that is where it was happening back then. My dream was to go out to California.
    Looking back over my life now, I can see how when I was 29 my life took a turn.... I finished LPN training then and started my new career.... At 59 I started my career (if you can call it that) in writing which I find very rewarding now. That made a lot of sense now to me how you explained this as my second chance and second go round. I really DO feel that I have a second chance now in my second Saturn return. I now feel that I have so much making up to do for time wasted and lost. I hope it's not too late to do all the things that I feel I need to do that I didn't do before..... I really feel that your blog helped me to do some introspective thinking today. Thank You..... Giovanna

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    1. Giovanna, that is so interesting! You also wanted to go to L.A.! I also finished my L.P.N. out there...and we share a love of music, too! It is never too late and the Second Saturn Return is that next big chance, so happy it all makes more sense to you now and that you are having this time now to do them. Now, with wisdom, we can truly enjoy them! xx Shawn Thanks for your comments and sharing, too!

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    2. Shawn .... I also had a very real vision of my father when he died... the same day. I began on a spiritual journey since then and it made me realize that man's spirit really does go on after this life. I would not have believed it had I not seen it with my own two eyes (or third eye as they say) Since then I have been more in touch with my own spirituality and had sort of an awakening. I found that I can express myself through poetry that touch people's hearts. Believe it or not, I feel that sometimes my words come to me from another spiritual dimension or world, because when I read back some of my poetry it feels so unreal the these words came from me. I hope that this doesn't seem pretentious because it certainly is not meant to mean that I'm such a great writer but only that I feel that I have been inspired by a greater power sometimes to write. I hope that makes sense to you. I think that only other writers would really understand this and even music composers. I think that music is a gift to us and meant to inspire us. I have been inspired by some to the great lyricists of our time. The moody blues, Led Zep, Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel, Leonard Cohen and Gordon Lightfoot to name few. I know that I was meant to do what I'm doing now and I always felt (all my life) that I was supposed to do something else. I just wished I had found out sooner than later.. Thank you so much again.... xx

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    3. Once again Giovanna, I can relate as bearing witness to not just one but two men who I loved who died, I was not even in the same COUNTRY as when they passed and was not in touch nor even knew where they were...as they were past relationships at the time. Both appeared to me in spirit. Two completely different experiences, one called me to become a seeker of truth and use my own psychic gifts, which I did. The other , many years later, to become a Medium and this too is what I did, which is also part of my other blog, The Pittsburgh Phantom and Me. It is the writing which makes it all come out and make sense, the words do seem to come from "above" and many writers, musicians, poets, say this too. Thanks again for your lovely comments, and many blessings for all your journeys! :-) Shawn

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  5. Very interesting blog and yes, the time of us all flows like a slow short river in the endless universe. So I´m fascinated about clocks and the 10000 year clock project.My life is also sometimes a short film. What will bring us the future? Where is the end?
    I look at one of my clocks and it said: It´s time...to go work... to go sleep....and one day..to die!

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    1. Thank you Wolfgang, that is a great project to be involved with. That old Father Time certainly has his way with us, whatever we may think about time...and it keeps on rolling on! :-) Shawn

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  6. "Time Stand Still"...RUSH

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    1. I don't know that song, by Rush (and maybe I do but can't remember it??) and so I will look it up on YouTube now, thanks Thomas, for the mention of it and for reading my blog. :-) Shawn

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  7. And here I am, happy to be living in Pittsburgh. I've been to many places but in Pittsburgh I will remain.
    Time Is On My Side...maybe.
    Time Enough for Love...yes
    A Time To Love and A Time To Die...perhaps.

    Turn, Turn, Turn.....

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    1. ou know the Byrds song was a thought but this is the one who came to my head and played as I awoke. That was my inspiration and I hear you Tom. Pittsburgh is a great city, now, but way back, maybe it lacked that certain something I wanted as a young woman. There were many young people who left it in the 1980's as well, when the jobs and opportunities dried up. Many also have come back...and so I am lucky because it seems you can go home again..but it will never be the same, of course! Thanks for sharing! Shawn :-)

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  8. Quite welcome....

    You begin with 1973.
    I was in eighth grade and one of my heroes was Jim Croce...and then he was gone. A Pennsylvania farm boy does good...and he's gone. Yes, the muse does pull or push in many directions.

    If I can save time in a bottle..♪♫

    It wasn't to be.
    And yes, Zeppelin, and well "Yes" again. Houses of the Holy, Fragile, Seventh Sojourn.
    And I'm devouring all of it. Taking it it.

    Music can "take you back".

    I remember that September afternoon when during study hall in the library and sneaking in a transistor radio with earplug, listening to 13Q, and hearing Jim had died the night before.

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    1. Hi Thomas, yes and "YES"! I, too, remember when Jim Croce died. I was an Usherette at the Syria Mosque all my High School years (1970-74) and I saw him live then a couple of times. Also saw so many of the greats... singers/groups/songwriters then. It was a big hall which was used for concerts then. That was more a joy then a job! But it does all take me back..any song can do this but I think we all find the ones from our past which marry up memories are the ones who make us feel, think and remember. YES, Led Zep, Joni Mitchell, James Taylor, Carly Simon, Three Dog Night, YES, The Moody Blues ( some of these in the Civic Arena,or 3 Rivers Stadium which was the bigger venues) and so many more. We grew up with great music and I am forever grateful..not to mention the Beatles! There, I did mention them! ;-) All are having a revival and some have never stopped. What a treat for us all. Shawn :-)

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  9. Beautifully written Shawn - from your BIG heart. Thank you! <3

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    1. Dear Unknown, thank you for such a wonderful comment! It warms my heart. <3 xx

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  10. I really enjoyed this article. Identified with much of what you said. Hope you do make time for blogging going forward :)

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  11. Thanks Barbara, it was on my mind only yesterday to write another entry to this blog...so the Universe has concurred with your comment, and on the same day! My point of the whole blog is for others to also share their thoughts and experiences, so I am also happy you can identify with this one. Peace, Love, Shawn :-)

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