Have live date and time updated in sidebar

Hello, I would like to be able to display at the top of a sidebar (in a text widget) a simple, single line that shows the live date and time.

Wed 01-27 | 10:13 am

I found some code, and managed to alter it and place it into my theme’s functions.php file without causing the theme to crash, I think. (Atahualpa theme)

I don’t know whether the function should respond with “echo” or “return”

— begin code snippet —–
function tim_time {
date_default_timezone_set(‘EST’);
$tt = date(‘D m-d | h:i a’);
echo $tt
}

OR

function tim_time {
date_default_timezone_set(‘EST’);
$tt = date(‘D m-d | h:i a’);
return $tt
}
— end code snippet —–

But I have not figured out what syntax to put into the text widget to call this function.

Also, I have no idea if it would show a live, running time– or just a ‘snapshot’ of whatever time it was when the function was “first” run.

Can any kind soul take mercy on me and point me down the right path??

THANK YOU!