We Have All The Time In The World

Sorry, but I'm going to mention Crete again today.

I wrote about how there were three signs that persuaded me to holiday in Crete with Karin, my wife. Afterwards I did a post about some Crete coincidences and what I saw to be the meaning of our Crete visit. But now I realise there was something else too.

While on our holiday both my watch and my wife's watch stopped. The batteries must have run out. I've since put new ones in and they are both okay again now.

Bit of a meaningful coincidence that this happened?

I think so because I remember the day mine stopped and we weren't too sure of the time. Both of us felt hungry for some reason. We didn't normally bother with lunch as we had big breakfasts and also much too much at our main meal in the evening. But this particular day we felt a bit peckish.

We were near a small cafe so while my wife sat in the sunshine I popped in to get a couple of cheese and salad baguettes. The proprietors turned out to be from Holland and they said I would have a wait a while as they had a couple of orders to do before mine. Everything was freshly made.

I got talking to the woman as she worked preparing the orders and she started on about time and how relaxed it is in Crete compared to when she visits her home in the Netherlands. We agreed it was a different way of life on the island as everyone was so much more laid back.

Now normally I don't like waiting in a queue, or being in traffic jams, or getting delayed for anything. Probably a lot of us are like this, but on that day I felt suddenly that the world had been lifted from my shoulders. I was quite happy just to sit and relax and wait until my food was ready.

When I got back to Karin I said something like, "Sorry for the delay," but she wasn't the least bit bothered and seemed to wonder why I even mentioned it.

It's now that I realise that one of the lessons of the Crete holiday is to chill out - if that's the right expression - and not to get worked up about time, how long things take and generally being time bounded during the day.

I remember my dad saying, when I was rushing about and in a hurry over something, "You've all the time in the world, son."

Dad was right we do have 'all of the time in the world.' I wonder why we don't always realise this?

On one of our Crete walks, where we had no real idea where we were heading, we noticed a small cave in the cliff side as pictured below. We found that there was an opening at the back and we could walk through the cave and have our own private balcony overlooking the sea and Kri-Kri island - that's the view in the photo at the top of the post.


We sat there looking out to sea, the island and the blue sky and time really wasn't important. We were in harmony with our surroundings - perfect! Who needs watches and time? We have all the time in the world.

(Kri-Kri island is uninhabited except for about 70 goats and is off the north-east coast of Crete.)