The Clock Ticks, But Do We Live?

 In the rush of everyday life, I often find myself returning to W.H. Davies’ poem Leisure. The line “What is this life if, full of care, we have no time to stand and stare” doesn’t feel like a distant poetic imagination anymore it feels like a mirror.

I look around, and I look within. The world seems more connected than ever, yet the bonds feel fragile. We text, we scroll, and we post, but do we truly talk? Do we truly live? My phone buzzes more than hearts beat in my surroundings. Even a smile now seems like a planned emoji, not something born out of real joy. I realise, painfully, that somewhere between deadlines and devices, I have forgotten the meaning of being alive.

There was a time when evenings meant watching sunsets, not watching screens. When silence was peace, not awkwardness. When walking meant listening to our thoughts, not playlists. Today, life is about projecting happiness, not feeling it. We decorate our social media walls while the walls of our hearts remain blank.

Davies’ words sting because they are truer now than ever before. We don’t have time to “stand beneath the boughs” or hear “streams full of stars.” We have traded presence for performance. And what is life, if not a moment fully lived?

This isn’t a cry for going back in time. It’s a plea to reclaim time. To look up, to look around, and to live before life slips away while we’re too busy being seen rather than being.

Let’s not just survive. Let’s truly live, even if it’s just by standing still for a moment and smiling for no reason at all.

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