Elizabeth,

That is the Eastern and Native American perception of time. It is more contextual. In the West, we see ourselves as distinct entities, necessarily moving through/counter to our environment/context. So the sense that we are moving toward the future and away from the past.

The alternative is being one with our situation, in which case, we are seeing events after they occur, then the energy transforms into other events/flows past us. It is still somewhat linear.

That we are mobile organisms, we have a sequential process of perception, which we naturally view as a reflection of reality. For instance, we think of event A as the cause of event B.

Yet yesterday doesn't cause today. The sun shining on this spinning planet creates this cycle of days and nights.

Similarly what we perceive are flashes of information carrying energy, coming from all directions. Which are then quickly superceded by the next flash of perception. Yet these packets of perception are a very small fraction of the energy swirling around us. So then we need to apply some logic, some narrative flow to these sequences of ourselves. One method is to be goal oriented, though mostly that means seeking out the little shots of endorphins to our pleasure centers, which tell us we've accomplished something. The other method is going with the flow, remaining in the present. Though as these mobile creatures, this can be a bit frustrating. As the saying goes, life is like a bicycle, keep moving forward, or you fall over. I tend towards a combination of the two.

In dealing with society though, I've tended to say that labor has to sell their body, while management has to sell their mind and the elites have to sell their soul. Consequently I stick to being a farm laborer. Watching the seasons cycle. Pretty much one with my context.