If I had all the time in the world

Such an interesting phrase

As if we did

As if we ever had.

As if we were God on the Eighth Day of Creation

When He spun out time.

The rest of his made world must have had a vexing week

Waiting for things to begin

When he crafted a vast universe 

Then cast upon the world

An uncountable galaxy of time.

But to dream and imagine

If I had all the time in the world at my dispensation

(Had God taken the day off and I stepped in his stead)

I would have a busy day

Spending my time in an inspired frenzy.

Taking time from here and placing it there

Until the world was set on a schedule that seemed to me 

Better.

Some harsh judgments

Some kind gestures

And like God’s version of the universe

Neither fair not just

Perhaps, not for the best.

But in my mind, better enough.

I would take eons from the years in takes to decay nuclear material and

Add them to the years of dogs’ lives so we would have them as life long companions.

I would tack on years to the lives of poor children who needlessly die from diseases a rich child knows how to cure and

Deduct the years spent on our planet by over-privileged individuals who have taken more than their share of the planet’s riches.

I would delay on the arrival of homo sapiens on our planet another 100,000 years hoping that the other animals can develop better defenses to our domination.

I would extend the lives of butterflies and dragonflies and

Bring to an early end the mountains of disposables 

Whose use is momentary and whose legacy is centuries long. 

I would add time to the lives of species going extinct and

Send to its death that most dangerous of all ideas

That because we pass by this way once

We can be ignorant of what comes next.  

That our obligations don’t exceed our vision.

In my own tiny life, I would underline with arias and symphonic movements 

All those moments when others had been deeply generous and kind to me and

I much less so.

The rapture of the cello and the high soprano slowing moments down 

So I can take full measure of those gifts.

Fully alive in mind that our lives that are short. 

We need to do what’s right when the occasion presents itself.

I would bless myself with the magic feeling of the summer’s start

Ten years old

The season stretched out

Time without end

Of untimed swims and bike rides

And discovery and play

And stories in books 

With late nights, capturing lightning bugs in jars

Releasing them just before a deep child’s sleep

When time disappears into another world.

I would add moments to the lives of people who have passed away so I could tell them the story of how much of themselves they have left behind

Ripples of being echoing forward.

I would interrupt time so that I could ask questions of those who have passed resolving for me great mysteries in my own life.

And I would step back almost finished with my work and 

Imagine a trial run where I see an evolving planet

The world made manifest in orchestral form.

Our beautiful tumultuous planet

Four billion years

Laid forth in a grand four movement symphonic gesture. 

All wonderfully paced

First a single microbe 

Alone here for three billion years

In our symphony

This accounts for three quiet one note one beat movements.

Now in our final movement, the algae emerge

Followed by multicellular organisms

This, the Cambrian period, explodes into millions of species

Swimming in our seas

(Sound the cymbals: rouse the entire orchestra)

Then a mass extinction

(Quiet the horns and woodwinds:  a solo for the cello.)

Plants emerge on land

Amphibians follow.

Great diversity in plants emerge

Another extinction.

We are half-way through our last movement

245 million to 65 millions years ago

The parade of reptiles

Mammals

Dinosaurs

Birds

Primates

Speed up to seven million years ago

The apes are walking upright

Our complex family tree includes all life

The last stanza occurs in our last 15-minute movement in a matter of seconds

We will have the orchestra play this as fast as their talents allow them.

And the music in its final movement

Gliding to the end, when the universe work is about to finish

With just seconds left

 A recent 13,000 years ago, the humans arrive

Civilizations arise.

Political organization

Religions.

The printing press.

Science.

The Industrial Revolution.

The great Wars.

Globalization of the world economy. 

I enter–a millisecond of a note

One of five billion at the time of my birth

106 billion of us once occupying the planet.

All this perfectly played in time. 

All the time in the world to reconsider another plan. 

Our tiny moment of life

Manifested in the long span of our universe

Forever before us and after.