Is life like toilet paper?

September has arrived. The beginning of this month sends Vancouverites scrambling, trying to relish the last few days of sunshine. This month is also when people go back to their routines and stay indoors more. In Vancouver, that means many people will begin buying their tickets for the Fringe Festival, the Film Festival and yes, even planning their ferry rides for the Thanksgiving holiday. The next thing you know, we'll be dressing up for Hallowe'en and seeing Christmas lights in the mall.

Indeed, it amazes me how time seems to accelerate as I get older, and I'm not even that old! Will I ever be able to make my time in this Earth slow down? More importantly, why does TIME go faster as we age? I once met someone who compared the speed of our lives to a toilet paper roll. As she explained it, from the beginning of the roll, it is new, full and takes a long time to deplete. However, as the roll is used more, it begins to run out. Faster and faster it spins, after each use, then, just when you are not at all ready for it to end, the roll finishes. No more toilet paper for you. Time's up! Bye-bye. Sort of depressing, isn't it?

The thing is, I see it another way. The feeling that time just files by is not an issue of age, but of mentality. I thought about the world a lot more differently when I was young. I rarely pined over the past nor did I wish my life away over unknown future events. Aside from a few birthdays and Christmas seasons, perhaps you were the same as I was. I didn't worry over the past nor did I try to control the future. But now, as an adult it takes so much effort for me not to do that. I can't seem to get out of the habit of obsessing about prior experiences as well as the ones to come. As a result, I am not aware of how fast my life is speeding by. I only start to realize the present at times like these, when seasons change for example. Indeed, this is why TIME just seems to slip through my fingers.

I am aware that this is not an original thought, it's been said many times before in various ways. But, it may make you think about toilet paper in a way you never have before, or not.