How did it get so late so soon?

It’s night before its afternoon.

December is here before its June.

My goodness how the time has flewn!

How did it get so late so soon?

–Dr. Seuss

Old photos.

When my kids were younger, I filled album after album with pictures of them. Then they grew up and left home and I lost interest. I still took pictures—though not as many as before—and I still had them developed. But instead of putting them in albums, I just threw them in boxes and closed them away in a downstairs closet.

Now I’m trying to do something with all those old photos, as least separate them out by year.

Time flies over us, but leaves its shadow behind. — Nathaniel Hawthorn

I was shocked to discover that the left-behind “shadows” of our lives had been accumulating in my photo boxes for twenty-one years. It didn’t seem possible, but the proof was there, time-stamped on some of the pictures.

Twenty-year-old clothes that were still in my closet.

Sifting through my photos, one of the first things that caught my attention was that the clothes I was wearing in the photos were still in my closet.

I still wear that hat, turtleneck, sweater and pants. The only difference: Now I wear glasses all day long.

I kept this denim dress until just a few months ago. A wool sweater is one thing. It’s supposed to last, but denim? In my defense, it was super comfortable on a hot day.

“Kids grow up SO fast!”

It’s a cliché, but we feel its truth so passionately, we can’t hold back. We have to say it … over and over again.

My grandson (the chubby baby sucking on a bottle) is a senior in high school now. He’s six foot three and muscular. My granddaughter, a sophomore in college, has left her picture books behind to study engineering.

OMG! Where has the time gone? They grew up SO fast! (Sorry, I couldn’t help it.)

Why does time seem to speed up as we grow older?

You don’t hear children complaining about how fast time passes or asking other children, “When did you grow so tall?” You do hear them asking, however, why it’s taking so long to drive to Grandma’s house (“Are we there yet?”)

So why does time seem to pass more quickly when we’re older?

One widely accepted theory about our distorted perception of time has to do with how long it takes our brains to process new information.

When we receive lots of new information, it takes our brains a while to process it all. The longer this processing takes, the longer that period of time feels.

Children are learning new things all day long. Their brains need lots of processing time. Adults are more familiar with the world. We fall into routines. Sometimes we barely notice the world we’re passing through. (Have you ever been surprised by your exit on a freeway? Did you think, “What? Already? I don’t even remember passing Northgate.”)

This theory would explain another phenomenon. You drive someplace you’ve never been before. A few hours later, when you drive back along the same route, you’re surprised at how much quicker the return trip seems to be. At least that’s my experience. How about you?

Is time passing too fast for you? Do you want to slow it down?

As Geoffrey Chaucer said, “Time and tide wait for no man.” Well, time may not wait, but you do have it within your control to change your perception of it.

According to a New York Times article:

It’s simple: if you want time to slow down, become a student again. Learn something that requires sustained effort; do something novel. Put down the thriller when you’re sitting on the beach and break out a book on evolutionary theory or Spanish for beginners or a how-to book on something you’ve always wanted to do. Take a new route to work; vacation at an unknown spot. And take your sweet time about it.

Quotations from Dr. Seuss, Nathaniel Hawthorn, and Geoffrey Chaucer found on BrainyQuote.