The journey and time: where did it go?!

When I first arrived in Toronto in 1963 I saw it as the beginning of my life as an adult. I was 25ish, full of energy and hope and excitement. Everything was ahead; everything was possible. I was part of the generation of the future and it was the 60's. Life in the city, life in culture, in relationships, in what you could do and how you could dress was being transformed. And I was part of it! It was exciting and it felt like the beginning of the journey of my life. All that had gone before was just preparation for this moment. 

When I arrived back in Toronto in 2008 after 30 years in a monastery, living a life of silence and profound listening and contemplation it was a bit like dropping into the old/new life from Mars. All was both different and the same. But just one of the things that struck me most was to see around me the new 20's generation, the people I was part of just a blink ago. They seem to be doing, and perhaps feeling, pretty much as we did- life is ahead, all is possible, we will be different, we are invulnerable. Has every generation experienced this?

The point of all this as I see it from my new vantage point is that I have become so much more aware of Time. Whatever Time is. Because what I know and experience is that I am old now and will soon die; my nieces and nephews who were the 'young beginners' when I left are now middle-aged, and even they face a new youth. Time is doing its thing. And the only way I can describe this experience of Time is by using the word inexorable.  

So I find myself wondering: how often do I,  do we, actually examine our journey? Do we actually ever take hold of the journey which is our life or do we just let things roll on and happen to us? It seems to me that the answers make a huge difference to how we will feel about our lives at the end - and there is, indeed, an end.