Living by Two Clocks

There are two clocks that tick inside of you.

The first is loud, insistent, relentless. It is the human clock: like stones marked by the hammer of passing hours. It measures deadlines, bills, responsibilities, and the rhythm of the everyday world. It ticks in minutes, hours, and days, and it reminds you of all the ways you must show up.

The second is quiet, irregular, and strange. It is the soul clock: like fire held in embers, waiting for the right breath of wind to ignite. It measures readiness, alignment, and ripening. It does not follow a schedule. It moves in its own mysterious way, bending time to its own hidden current, unfolding exactly when it is meant to.

Most of us live by the human clock because it is visible, understandable, and urgent. Yet we are never fully alive if we ignore the other. The soul clock is subtle, almost invisible, but it is the one that carries truth.

The Tension of Two Timings

When the human clock and the soul clock are out of sync, life feels heavy. You may be tired, restless, or frustrated. You may wonder if you’re falling behind, or if you’ve somehow misread the instructions.

This is the tension most of us avoid naming: the friction between what the world demands and what your inner fire calls for.

It shows up as hesitation, like wind shifting before a storm. It shows up as resistance, like water pooling where the ground is blocked. It shows up as burnout, or what looks like burnout, but it is often misalignment, not exhaustion.

To honour the soul clock is not to abandon responsibility. It is to live with integrity. To navigate the human world while remaining faithful to the rhythm inside. It’s to live the paradox, the both/and.

How to Notice Your Soul Clock

Your soul clock speaks in small, quiet ways:

A pause that feels necessary, even when the schedule says “go.” A pull toward something that makes no practical sense. A sense of fullness or emptiness that cannot be measured. A refusal, deep in your bones, to continue a path that no longer fits.

It is not dramatic. It does not roar. Sometimes it whispers: “Not yet. Wait. This is not yours. Breathe.”

And if you learn to listen, you will find it has been keeping perfect time all along.

The Dance Between Clocks

To honour both clocks is to live like a tree rooted in earth and reaching toward sky: grounded and visible, yet moved by unseen cycles. It's learning the dance between them.

• To pay your bills, answer your emails, and meet your commitments without betraying your inner life.

• To act with courage, like flame leaping into a new space, even when the outcome is unknown.

• To trust both the stone-solid reality of time and the riverlike flow of your own becoming.

• To choose from power, not from fear.

• To honour both the practical and the sacred, the visible and the invisible.

It is delicate, sometimes uncomfortable work. It asks for patience. It asks for trust. It asks for courage. And yet, when done well, it produces a life that is both grounded and luminous, both responsible and free.

A Quiet Rebellion

Living by two clocks is a quiet rebellion against the world’s insistence that urgency equals wisdom, that speed equals value, that visibility equals worth.

It's a rebellion not against life, but in favour of yourself. It's a rebellion rooted in trust, patience, and fidelity to your inner truth.

And it is in this rebellion, in honouring both clocks, that you find a different kind of power: one that does not demand proof, applause, or permission. One that only requires faith in the timing of your own soul.

Closing Reflection

The human clock will keep ticking. The soul clock will keep waiting.

Ask yourself:

Where are you running against your own clock?

Where are you following the world’s rhythm when your own wants to speak?

You do not need to resolve the tension today. You do not need to have all the answers. All you need is to listen and to begin the dance.

And in the space between, you will learn to dance with both, you will find a rhythm that is wholly yours, gracefully and with integrity.

For the full reflection, I invite you to read here

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