subscribe Blog
search
Recent posts
The trouble with being right
(26 Feb 2010 02:22:27)
Holy humble heart
(12 Feb 2010 02:21:07)
AS GOD IS HIS JUDGE
(05 Feb 2010 03:10:40)
Myth moves me
(14 Jan 2010 06:05:52)
Last comments
I think this is exactly right. Buddhists can talk...
(19 Feb 2010 {ts '1899-12-30 04:55:34'})
Interesting post.  I agree with most of what ...
(12 Feb 2010 {ts '1899-12-30 22:27:39'})
A fair point. As I said, I'm no pacifist, however ...
(12 Feb 2010 {ts '1899-12-30 09:28:08'})
So why is the 'warrior' the one stuck with the nag...
(05 Feb 2010 {ts '1899-12-30 11:35:06'})
I couldn't agree more, the word spirit certainly i...
(16 Nov 2009 {ts '1899-12-30 10:47:18'})
Hey Nick, Great blog, I really enjoyed it... thoug...
(03 Nov 2009 {ts '1899-12-30 12:04:38'})
Indeed... it seems in some ways that religion and ...
(03 Nov 2009 {ts '1899-12-30 12:19:53'})
It is just unbelievable how the churches in the UK...
(23 Oct 2009 {ts '1899-12-30 13:56:19'})
As the developer of this site, I can truly appreci...
(30 Aug 2009 {ts '1899-12-30 03:36:58'})
FEED
[RSS][ATOM] All
[RSS][ATOM] spirituality
[RSS][ATOM] perseverence
[RSS][ATOM] humanity
[RSS][ATOM] dignity
[RSS][ATOM] compassion
[RSS][ATOM] worth
[RSS][ATOM] prosperity
[RSS][ATOM] spiritual abuse
[RSS][ATOM] justice
[RSS][ATOM] spiritual not religious
[RSS][ATOM] assumptions
[RSS][ATOM] bad spirituality
[RSS][ATOM] kindness
[RSS][ATOM]
[RSS][ATOM] bodies
[RSS][ATOM] joy
[RSS][ATOM] mindfulness
[RSS][ATOM] scepticism
[RSS][ATOM] rationality
[RSS][ATOM] time
[RSS][ATOM] work
[RSS][ATOM] courage
[RSS][ATOM] spiritual practice
[RSS][ATOM] politics and religion
[RSS][ATOM] liberty
[RSS][ATOM] tolerance
[RSS][ATOM] community
[RSS][ATOM] Unitarian
21 September 2009
I’m a lucky man, everyone agrees.

‘But you live your life on holiday!’ they say in London.

‘Londra! Bella citta!’ says the taxi driver from the airport when I tell him where I’ve arrived from.
I’m a lucky man, I agree. I’m lucky enough to be with the one I love, that’s for sure. As for the travel, however…
We moved to Italy when my partner got a job offer she couldn’t refuse. My freelance life meant I could move with her, providing I was prepared to keep on moving – back and forth across Europe (I have my green guilt, I admit, and have done my best to offset, but faced with the choice between Lea and Gaia, I chose Lea).

Back and forth, back and forth, across countries, cultures, climates.

Time works for me – I can get up an hour later at home in Italy and still appear to be bright and early with my emails to England.

I catch the 7 o’clock flight from Italy and somehow lose an hour in mid-air so I am at my desk before 9.30…

Time works against me, parcelling out my two quite separate lives it seems. The comfort, peace, passion of my time in Italy; hitting the ground running in England, I dart off the plane and into a whirl of advocacy, office politics, catching up with friends.

Time is compressed in England, elongated in Italy. In England I rush to get through, in Italy I draw out each moment. Am I doubling the quality of my life, or halving it? Can Lea really understand? For her I have slipped out for a few short days when she has been free to watch X Factor in the evenings without my grumbling. Yet I feel as if I have been gone a week, a month, a year…

Time is absolute and infinitely malleable. The paradox of our lives: every second more marks a second less, The minutes drag during a dull meeting, tumble toward the end of an exam. Some of my Saturday mornings will last for an eternity while whole working weeks have been lost… some working weeks will last forever, while whole weekends…

Counting us, holding us accountable, our time is not linear but three, maybe four, dimensional; indivisible from who we are, like our heart – the clock of our heart, beating with us through the fragmentary, irregular journey of our lives, time travellers all.
Categories: time , work
Social Buttons: del.icio.us digg NewsVine YahooMyWeb Furl Fark Spurl TailRank Ma.gnolia blogmarks co.mments Reddit
icon date 05:47:29 | icon author Nick Axam
03 November 2009 12:04:38
Hey Nick,
Great blog, I really enjoyed it... though I must admit your life sounds pretty enviable, I can certainly see how you would be torn into wondering if you are halving time or doubling it... indeed.  My sister and her husband would love to split their time between Canada and Italy, but then that is a much longer commute!  You've definitely given me a lot to think about, and to really appreciate every moment - sometimes it's very easy to forget that one simple truth!
comment sent by Saoirse