Bill Piccolo

my five minutes

 
 

It’s 5:38 am. I’ve woken up early, not from a nightmare, not from insomnia, but out of inspiration and the longing to express it. It is a curse I’m blessed with. I think about our world and the short and long wave chorus of the chirping birds outside. Amazing how such a tiny humble little creature can make so much noise. 

 

Five minutes is no time at all really. We spend it smoking or talking about what our friend or child or colleague did or didn’t do - that they should have done, of course. We spend it making our great big plans. We spend it watching football or going to toilet or just daydreaming. I often think about silly things like this. I guess that’s one of the ways I pass my time, my five minutes. In the passing my mind wanders very often into that favorite old realm of mine - the ‘big picture’. I think about how small I see our big world sometimes – a color, a smell, the sound of a child outside on the street laughing. I find a timeless place in small things like this, in my five minutes. 

  

Work is busy. There are office politics and important high powered meetings. There are points to be made and deadlines to be reached. People are arriving from all over the planet to discuss and plan and make some great big change. There are presentations and seminars on the possible future of our great big world, and our great big organization. I think about this often in my five minutes. I watch the flashing beamer casting its artificial light on the wall. People are gesturing, words are coming out of their mouths, and great big things are being said. But the birds are louder and much more beautiful this early morning. Soon the light of the sun will breach the edge of our earth, as it turns. I feel the turning now, in these five small minutes. 

 

My life is really only five minutes long, I’ve realized recently. People are dying and our spirits are too, sometimes. Babies are being born right now - as continents drift and galaxies are being created.  I think about these things too, in my five little minutes. Three minutes have passed in the time I’ve spent writing this, and in my great big life. Now I stop and think about the remaining two. What will I do with those two little minutes? I hear the second hand ticking, and I feel the turning, always the turning. 

  

Could I not forget the concept of time? And my great big plans for our great big world. The birds have no plans, I’m sure. They’re far too busy singing, and they are singing their song for me. Just to hear that song is all my life. And all that I am is in this turning, in this small humble ever changing place. The light of the sun is coming inside now. Please do not let me forget this, my friend, in our five small minutes. Will you share it with me?

 

 

Zuni Life Path:

1.      Show up

2.      Pay attention

3.      Tell the truth

4.      Stay open to results

 

 

(2007)

All rights belong to its author. It was published on e-Stories.org by demand of Bill Piccolo.
Published on e-Stories.org on 04/21/2007.

 
 

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