When we are young, every year seems significant even as it feels that time is an infinite quality. In our early years there are times that mark the transition from childhood to adulthood. Becoming Bar/t mitzvah at the age of 13 or 12 is a Jewish marker. Turning 18 or 21 can be a marker for rights and responsibilities such as voting. After that we enter our middle years. As adults our status seems fairly constant for decades. There may be significant changes in our lives related to work or to relationships and family but they occur at different moments in each person’s life. We mark the passage of time only with BIG birthdays by decade: 30-40-50. Often when we turn 60 or 65, we look back and wonder where all those years went?

      I would like to suggest a new practice of marking the time between 21 and 70 by using the seven-year cycle climaxing in the sabbatical year that we read in the Torah. I am not proposing sabbaticals as a year off for everyone. Rather I am suggesting that we use a seven-year cycle as a helpful way to shape time. 

       For each seven-year period, you would develop a personal plan. The plan could range from accomplishing long postponed projects to working on inner qualities. It could be fulfilling a  goal—working out regularly or a meditation practice. It could involve a reallocation of your use of time. 

      There are obviously bigger goals and smaller goals. Be certain that you have some goals that are achievable. Don’t expect to do them all in year one. Set goals for years one through three. Then evaluate and set them for years four to seven.  

      Traditionally, there existed a cycle within the seven-year cycle. In an agricultural setting, there were a number of tithes that farmers were supposed to give. The schedule for these tithes was as follows: in the first, second, fourth and fifth years you were supposed to bring the tithe to Jerusalem and eat it. In the third and sixth years, you gave the tithe to the poor. Incorporating this into our seven-year plan, would suggest that in the first two years the focus of the planning should be on ourselves. In the third year, we should focus on others. This could involve giving more money to or volunteering to help those in need. While there can be multiple goals for each year, having an inner focus for two years followed by an outer focus creates balance. This cycle would be repeated in years 4-6. The seventh year would have a Shabbat element, resting from starting new goals and spending more time relaxing and less time focused on accomplishments. It also would be a time to evaluate the past and plan for the next seven-year cycle. 

      Like any time practice, it encourages us to take a measure of control over that most precious commodity—time. It is true that we cannot stop time. Yet, we can try and use our time wisely rather than let it slip by unaware.