Applying ‘Deep Time’ in a Single Human Life (the ‘purpose’ question)

Cathy Presland
5 min readJun 16, 2021

What will I do with this one wild and precious life?

My Time?

When I wrote about deep time, I had in mind planetary time, or longer, a sense of timelessness, where ‘time’ is a construct of human consciousness and there is something that exists outside of human understanding.

The idea of time as ‘infinite’ perhaps?

But these are contemplations rather than the reality most of us live in and, most days, I find myself in much more practical conversations,

How shall I live?

How do I make the most impact with my one short life?

Will I ever achieve what I set out to achieve? Should I even bother??

Pretty common questions I find, for those of us who want life to mean something beyond our experience of it, who see systemic challenges and believe we can make a positive contribution, no matter how small.

Time, and Choice

I was in conversation with a friend who asked one specific question as we discussed the ‘state of the world’ over a virtual coffee.

No matter what I do, how is it possible for me to transform X system?

--

--

Cathy Presland

What if making an impact was part of your everyday? Stories to light up your soul. Read more and free courses: https://cathypresland.com/