I have read part of Einstein’s theory of relativity. The analogy to the moving trains I get. The math, and ultimately the details of the theory, I do not. Time and space can be beguiling concepts. For example, I have just finished reading The Canon: A Whirligig Tour of the Beautiful Basics of Science, and have read that the expansion of the universe is the result of space expanding between galaxies. Um…OK. (I felt better after reading that astronomers are not quite sure what this means either.) Yet, as I make my way back from Australia, via Maui, I am feeling surprisingly grounded in my ability to assess time and space.

While the past few years pursuing my PhD has been an amazing experience, there have been some long periods of time within that journey that were not much fun. Addressing and overcoming personal challenges in the context of achieving a goal is not new. In fact, the effort associated with such challenges may ultimately define the value one assigns to the goal. Inherent in this realization is the ability to distinguish the passage of time.

Each of us uses individual means to chart time. I tend to vary my approach. Sometimes referring to a wrist watch, at other times eschewing my watch for the bright lights of my iPhone. However, when looking over the events of one’s life, events, that when taking place, seemed to either stretch the progress of time into slow-motion drudgery or speed it along like a flash of light, watches and iPhones are inadequate. When we assess personal progress over the course of years we require something more substantial.

My substantially larger timepiece, and the framework for my groundedness (which does not appear to be a word and I am sticking with it), is the variety of ecosystems I have experienced. This realization hit me as I was sitting atop a surfboard and watching three sea turtles play in the waves at Ho’okipa. And while the immediate perspective was focused on the pervious four weeks, my appreciation for this ecological clock grew as I expanded its application to the preceding decades.

Intermission: So here is where I was going to enumerate the ecosystems I have experienced and the progress I have made. That seemed self-serving and egotistical, and ultimately undermined the entire purpose of this post, which is to encourage an appreciation of our surrounding environment (aka ecosystem). What I consider the ecosystems of my life most certainly are different from what you consider an ecosystem. So we shall rush to the end. Ah, the lights are flicking…

This devout child of the mountains and alpine environments was basking in the foreplay of salt water and mysteries of the deep. This spatial experience, this very moment of being present, put into focus a temporal journey. And that journey, it suddenly became very clear, had the fragrance of perfection. No mechanical timepiece could define the travels of my senses. The smell of pines and eucalyptus, the spray of seawater and snow crystals. I was guided by my environment and it in turn proved the most empathetic of mentors.

And maybe, ever so slightly, I gained a better understanding of Einstein’s genius.