Time always seems long to the child who is waiting - for Christmas, for next summer, for becoming a grownup: long also when he surrenders his whole soul to each moment of a happy day.

Hammarskjöld contrasts two childlike experiences of time: the dragging slowness of anticipation (Christmas, summer, adulthood) and the expansive fullness of being wholly present in joy. The line suggests that time is not merely clock-measurement but a psychological and spiritual phenomenon shaped by desire and attention. Waiting stretches time because the mind lives ahead of itself; happiness can also make time feel “long,” not through impatience but through total absorption in the moment. Implicitly, the quote commends a disciplined presence—surrendering oneself to the present—over restless projection into the future, aligning with Hammarskjöld’s broader contemplative emphasis on inner life and attentiveness.