Time Ticks Away

 

 

I woke up one day and found myself in a room. A strange room it was. Just plain white walls devoid of doors and windows. I wondered how I got inside in the first place. The room was well lit up with brilliant white lights. There was a big clock on one wall, its tick-tock was amplified by the silence of the room. In one corner was a leaking pot. Drop by drop the water from it was dripping away. Strangely, the falling drops of water did not make a sound. It was as if the drops got lost in an abyss. In another corner was a little potted plant and a chair completed the decor of the room.

 

I sat in the chair wondering what was happening. I tried to remain calm in spite of the eerie setting I found myself in. A little observation made me realise that the dripping water was in perfect sync with the clock. One drop per second was being lost. 

‘What a waste,’ I thought. ‘And I don’t even know how much water is there in the pot.’

Along with this another thought flashed in my mind. 

‘Instead of wasting the water, I can move the potted plant under the pot of water. The water can be used to nurture the plant instead of being wasted.’

I got up and moved the pot under the dripping water.

 

I sat in my chair again with a sense of pride. But, with time I began to feel uneasy.

‘How am I ever going to get out?’ I thought.

The tick-tock of the clock now seemed deafening to me. I started to sweat as the room became warm. I walked up to the pot of water to have a drink and quench my thirst. But just as I reached the pot, the water stopped dripping. I opened the lid of the pot to find it empty. 

‘What?’ I was shocked to see the pot empty. The pot ran dry as I wasted my time. I realised the room was silent now, the tick-tock of the clock couldn’t be heard. I turned around and noticed the clock had stopped too.

 

I started feeling uneasy, a mixed feeling of pain and repentance flooded my heart. No longer able to stand, I collapsed to the floor. Just as I collapsed, I woke up from my sleep because of that feeling of falling. I felt a searing pain in my head having woken up all of a sudden. As I sat in my bed massaging my head, I tried to decipher my dream.

‘What could be the meaning of it?’ I thought. After a while I had my eureka moment. Life is like the pot of water and time, like the dripping water, is continuously on the move. You never know how much time you have left. Whatever time you have, you can either use it to nurture yourself and others or let it go to waste. Whatever you do, one thing is for sure, you are moving towards the ultimate destiny at the rate of 60 seconds per minute. Make the most of it while it’s there or repent later, the choice is yours. Time, as we all know, waits for no one!