Is Time a Real thing?

We had a beautiful sunny day today.  It was Easter and we had a family brunch.  I had hoped that we could eat outside if it was warm enough, and it was!  Yay!  The sunniest place at our house is on the deck, so hubby got out our summer dining furniture and set it up on the deck for me.  I cooked our favorite brunch foods; bacon and egg casserole, french toast casserole, blueberry muffins and fresh fruit salad.  

Our whole family got together (with the exception of my oldest son and his family, they live too far away).  I made mimosas and I surprised my daughter with a non alcoholic version using sparkling cider instead of champagne (she's pregnant).  We ate and enjoyed the food and the beautiful day.  

 I filled up some plastic eggs with candy and hubby and I hid them for the "kids" (he he) to find.  They LOVED that and in fact they did NOT find them all.  The ones I thought would be hard to find were easy and the ones I thought would be easy were hard...go figure.  Then we sat around eating the candy.  

When it was all over, we all lounged around on the deck enjoying the sunshine.  It was so nice.  

I'm the kind of person who is always in a hurry.  I'm always thinking...what's next?  Even when things are going good, I'm ready to move on to the next thing.  But, not today.  Today I was in the moment.  I listened to the wind in the trees and felt the sun on my face.  I cherished the time with my family.  And, I thought "I wish this day could go on forever".  And, it seemed as if time slowed down and just lingered for a while.  Slow motion.  After it was over and everyone left, hubby and I took a nice walk in the twilight, a nice ending to a lovely day.

Why is it that time seems to go faster sometimes and slower other times?  A friend of mine has been going through some hard times and she told me that while she was waiting for some (bad) news, the clock just refused to budge.  She kept saying that to me over and over.  She really believes that time slowed down.  

Did it?  Like it did for me today?  And other times it seems to wiz by.   Like when I'm late.  Boy does time speed up when I am late for something!  I am convinced that the passing of time can change.  Years ago I had a car accident.  Someone ran a red light and ran into me.  I saw him coming in my rear view mirror and I knew it was going to happen.  And, when it did occur, it all happened in slow motion.  I had time to think all kinds of thoughts.  I thought about how I knew he was going to hit me.  I felt myself sink into my seat and wondered if the seat would break.   I saw the lady in front of me bump her head on her window behind her (also in slow motion) in her pickup truck as I ran into her and two more cars in front of her.  All these thoughts and the sense of floating through the whole thing that seemed to last for several minutes and in reality was over in a flash.  I'll never forget that slow motion feeling.  Did that happen?  Or did I imagine it?

Can I "will" time to slow down or speed up if I want it to?  I felt like today, I made it slow down on purpose.  If that is possible, I will be doing it a lot in the future.  I want to take time to savor the good times and really live in the moment.