Life is a Series of Timelines

In my opinion, life is a series of timelines. Think about it. At this moment, you are somewhere between birth and death. That is the biggest timeline you have, unless you believe in an afterlife. Then, there’s millions of smaller timelines, stopping and starting at different times. At one specific moment in your life, you are at countless different stages in each of your timelines. You just might not know how far along you are in each one.

Everything in your life has it’s own timeline. Each relationship you have starts, and then eventually ends. For some period of time, another person’s timeline is intertwined with yours. School, jobs, hobbies, even your appearance: they’re all on different timelines. Some have fixed starts and finishes. Others are indefinite. Some of your timelines are just getting ready to blossom into something great. Some are far off into the future, impossible for you to predict. Some move fast, others move slow.

That’s the beautiful thing about life. One timeline could be ending. Maybe suddenly, maybe painfully. Maybe it was a particularly long timeline. Or maybe it was just woven tightly into the fabric of your life. So you zoom in on that pain, and it seems like that’s the only perception of time that matters. All of your other timelines seem blurry, maybe even meaningless. In your darkest moments, you might even consider ending it all. You’re drowning in the fabric.

But, as actual time passes, you gradually zoom out. There are all the rest of your timelines, waiting for you. The pain of losing that one timeline becomes a timeline in itself. It may never go away, but perhaps it’s grip on your life will get a little looser.

Often when you think you’re at the end of something, you’re at the beginning of something else. – Fred Rogers

Your timelines pick you up and weave between each other, creating the fabric of life. Yes, some stitches will be messed up. And sometimes the entire blanket looks like crap. But there’s a story behind each stitch. Hundreds of different timelines mixed together to form that one moment, that one thought. Good or bad, your timelines are what make you unique. No one else’s blanket will have the same pattern as yours.

Life is made of timelines. Appreciate them as they come and go. Nothing lasts forever, but try to make the most out of the fabric you’re given. This year, try to reflect on whether or not you’re happy about where you stand in each of your timelines, each aspect of your life. You’ve got this!