Losing Track of Time

In Percy Jackson, there’s a magical casino - the Lotus Hotel and Casino - that captures its visitors, causing them to lose all sense of time. Inside, everything is designed to keep them entertained and distracted, making hours stretch into days, days into years. Some have unknowingly spent decades within its walls, unaware of how much time has slipped away. While the story portrays this as a dangerous trap, I’ve come to realize, in the right circumstances, losing track of time can be a great thing.

Certain places and people have this quality: in their presence, time becomes fluid and elastic. Hours pass in what feels like minutes, and you emerge disoriented yet refreshed, wondering where the time went.

When I visit my favourite cafe with a purpose - to read, write, or simply have coffee - I step into this altered sense of time. sense of time. The hundred little things stretching my mind thin, the endless list of unfinished tasks - usually relentless in their demands - soften at the edges. In these moments, the heaviness lifts just enough for me to feel lighter, clearer. And when I finally return, I do so with a mind that feels a little clearer, a little more my own.