Mixing up Time

Sometimes I wish I had a time slicer. It would pull apart the pieces of life, shake them up and smoosh them back together differently. 

It would sprinkle the lonely hours in with the days that I wish I could be alone. It would take the times I've fought back tears and put them instead with the sad moment I can't seem to express. It would place my wish to be out of school and in a job with my wish to be back in school instead of working. It would merge the times I am annoyingly squished between brothers in the back seat with the longing to share a laugh—or today, a birthday—with them.

I guess my time machine wouldn't be all that revolutionary. I suppose the enlightened among us have already created my nifty "time slicer" and coined it "perspective". 

But how do you hold on to that perspective? How do you teach yourself to look at things with the eyes of the much more wise and know that one day in the future—or simply one minute from now—you may wish for just the opposite? Why is it so dang difficult to always enjoy what is right here, right now?

I took this photo in Ireland...it has nothing to do with this overly-pensive post, except that I think the perspective is pretty cool.