I woke up today with the sound of the running river and the birds chirping.

It’s Sunday, or at least I think it is.

The gift of “losing time” is spectacular. It took me two months to get lost, I am finding it difficult to imagine the idea of going back.

Kids never know what day it is, even before we started the trip, on weekends our daughter would ask “is it a school day”, and then she would ask me the same question 2-3 more times throughout the day.

Now I ask the same question, and yes, sometimes more than once.

The ancients and the beginning of time

One of the blessings of global travel is the chance to step back into history.

When I was at the UBUD Readers and Writers Festival I spent 4 days immersed in Aussie, New Zealand and Indonesian history. I even went to see several documentaries, one of these was about the first nomadic population of humans to enter Australia. Now of course we refer to them as Aborigines.

This group of clandestine travelers were the first ever to cross from land over water without any notion of a land mass on the other side.

But as luck would have it, there was, and it was Australia.

Thinking about what Australia must have been like prior to human inhabitants is fascinating, not to mention what it must of have been like to encounter giant birds, huge car size lizards, and curious hopping two-legged creatures.

These nomads lived a lifestyle that we in the modern age have been trying hard to replicate. Not the cold climate, lack of clothing, food and shelter. I will take 2014 thank you very much, but the timelessness, the community and the idea of freedom.

Modernity is not always prosperity

Sitting here riverside, in the middle of the Northern Island of NZ in the town of Paihia, I have time to take a deep breath, step away from the crowds and markets of Kuta Beach in Bali, and remember what it feels like to be timeless.

Not timeless in the sense of “I am not going to die”, but timeless in the sense of “What day is it”?

Time tracking helps us to make appointments and to create a sense of organization around life, but the constant organization, alarms, appointments, meetings, calendars it is not my idea of freedom.

Is it anybody’s?

In 2014 it is a  luxury to be timeless, which is interesting, since almost everything we do, invent and purchase is marketed as a means to give us more time.

And although we have it, we don’t have the luxury to lose track of it, which begs the question, is modernity really the truest path to prosperity.