Time is in your hands!

Happy new year!
So far mine is off to a new and magical start.
In preparation for speaking at the upcoming IMDHA/IACT conference I needed a watch for my presentation. And client recently commented that I should have one in my office.
The old type of pocket watch that you can swing by it’s chain. The kind often used by hypnotists in old movies.


Going through some boxes I located the one I needed.
Upon opening the box I was pleased to find 5 pocket watches in various states of disrepair.
One shiny gold watch stood out among them. It is not worth anything and runs on a battery but it is stunning to look at.
It should induce trance nicely! Muhahaa:)
Looking further at the pocket watches I picked up the oldest one. It belonged to the father of my late husband and was first given to me after we had married.
It did not work but was a beautiful watch none the less.
Today as I held it in my hands, to my amazement, it began to tick!
It has been 7 years since my late husband’s death and several more years since his fathers death.
It seems there is magic of sort in the number 7.
I met my late husband after he had been a widower for 7 years.
I met my current husband, also a widower, 7 years after the death his wife.
The watch is now ticking away making up for lost time. And it seems to be keeping time nicely.
I laughed, thinking of the psychic I nannied for years ago: she would stop any watch she came in contact with and we learned I could start them again. It became a contest. She handed me the box of dead watches and asked me to start them for her.
After I started the watches, she would wear them and they would stop working. It was job security!

Another clock story of mine; my late husband’s pendulum clock had not chimed as long as he could remember. It hung in his parents home as long as he could remember, perhaps before he was born.
​On the day of our wedding it chimed!
Later it chimed again when I hung our marriage certificate from the church on the wall.
It continued to chime at unique moments during our marriage, and only when it chose to do so.
Then at the moment of my husband’s passing, the pendulum clock stopped dead on the wall.
Strange and mysterious things happen at the sacred moment of death!

Just like that children’s song, “My Grandfather's Clock" written in 1876 by Henry Clay Work.
My grandfather's clock was too large for the shelf,
So it stood ninety years on the floor;
It was taller by half than the old man himself,
Though it weighed not a pennyweight more.
It was bought on the morn of the day that he was born,
And was always his treasure and pride;
But it stopped short — never to go again --
When the old man died.
Ninety years without slumbering
(tick, tock, tick, tock),
His life's seconds numbering,
(tick, tock, tick, tock),
It stopped short never to go again when the old man died
In watching its pendulum swing to and fro,
Many hours he spent as a boy.
And in childhood and manhood the clock seemed to know
And to share both his grief and his joy.
For it struck twenty-four when he entered at the door,
With a blooming and beautiful bride;
But it stopped short — never to go again --
When the old man died.
(My Grandfather’s Clock, lyrics and info from Wikipedia)

A year ago I unpacked the box the clock was in and opened up the back. Inside I found the very small piece which makes the pendulum swing was broke. With my new husband’s approval, I purchased a new piece for the clock and it now hangs on the wall, ticking away, ringing from time to time as it pleases!

Going back to today: Just why the pocket watch started today, I do not know, but I can only imagine it was destined to happen for reasons yet unknown.
Perhaps a curse is broken or a soul is redeemed, a witch is dead or a new child is born.
This will remain an unknown. I will just be grateful for whatever it represents, knowing that I played my part by starting time again!


A few metaphors come to mind:
“time heals all things.”
”time marches on”


And, that oft quoted scripture from Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 and The Byrds song called Turn! Turn! Turn!
A time for everything.
To every thing there is a season,
and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
A time to be born, a time to die;
a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
A time to kill, and a time to heal;
a time to break down, and a time to build up;
A time to weep, and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
A time to get, and a time to lose;
a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
A time to rend, and a time to sew;
a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
A time to love, and a time to hate;
A time of war, and a time of peace.


What the new year of 2020 brings each one of us remains a gift to be opened. What matters most is that Time has started again and YOU have the opportunity to do something wonderful and great with it!


I leave you with this thought from Norman Vincent Peale-
“Change your thoughts and you change your world.”