When You Stop Checking the Time

There is a moment during a holiday that I have always loved.

It is not when you arrive.

It is not when you unpack your suitcase.

It is not even the first glimpse of the sea.

It is something much simpler.

It is the moment you realise that time has passed and you have not checked the clock once.

Not your phone.

Not the time on a screen.

Nothing.

And that is when something becomes clear.

You are not rushing.

You do not need to be anywhere.

Nothing is chasing you.

For a few hours, perhaps even a few days, time stops pushing you forward.

I remember a guest once telling me:

“I thought I had been sitting on the balcony for ten minutes. It had been more than an hour.”

And I smiled.

Because that does not happen very often anymore.

Most of us live with our eyes fixed on the next hour.

The next obligation.

The next thing that needs to be done.

Perhaps that is why a holiday is more than simply being somewhere else.

Perhaps it is the rare chance to remember what it feels like to stop measuring every moment.

And when that happens, something inside you becomes quiet.