As someone who
despises any hint of cold weather, I can rejoice in the fact that it’s
mid-March and we have finally reached the final days of another long winter. For me, it’s the season in which time seems
to stand still. Perhaps that’s a good
thing.
Back in May of
1998, I conducted lengthy interviews with my parents for the creative 50th
anniversary scrapbook I was preparing for them.
I was racing with time to get the massive undertaking completed at least
a few days before that celebrated June 27th date.
Even without that Golden
Anniversary album in front of me, I’ll always remember one of my mother’s
quotes: “You go to bed one night when
you’re young; you awake the next morning and you’re old!”
My mom is now 82,
and my dad passed away at age 86 nearly four years ago on April 21/22, 2009, less
than 10 weeks shy of their 61st anniversary. The more that time slips away in my own life,
the greater understanding I have of my mom’s saying.
Others have said
the same thing in different words. One of my favorites is “Time is at once the
most valuable and the most perishable of all our possessions. “ That offering was coined by one of our nation’s
early congressmen, fully known as John Randolph of Roanoke (VA).
I can certainly
relate to both of those quotes and several others! While others live to work, I’ve always lived
within my means with a credit rating of 840 or 845. I absolutely live for experiences
like traveling, dancing, and socializing. For the latter two, I take hug therapy to an
art form. I go out on weekends and
weeknights, and have fun one-on-one, in small groups, and in large ones. Considering family and friends, it’s great to
realize that “the best things in life aren’t things.”
Is your glass half
full or half empty? I keep gulping down
the contents (normally the non-alcoholic variety) and have my glass
refilled. As I get older, I don’t always
recall everything, but as in the old Jim Croce tune, “Time in a Bottle,” I have
kept a diary for some 30 years and have assembled scrapbooks for travel,
sports, and other special occasions well before they were in vogue. After all, as British philosopher Bertrand
Russell once said, “The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time!”
How about
you? What’s your attitude toward
time? Are you instead collecting ‘what
ifs?’ Do you talk yourself out of living by focusing on negatives or worrying
about what might go wrong? You can’t change the past, but you can ruin the
present by worrying about the future.
Time is of the
essence! The clock keeps ticking. Unless you can build “The Time Machine,” as
in the 1960 H.G. Wells-inspired movie, or go “Back to the Future,” your time is
also finite. As the sands keep sifting
downward from the top bulb of the hour glass to the bottom one, how do you
choose to spend the balance of your days?
As the late and
great Galesburg, Illinois poet Carl Sandburg once wrote, “Time is the coin of
your life. It is the only coin you have,
and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it
for you.”
Oops! Look what time it is! Time to get ready and meet some of my dancing
friends! Time is fleeting! Until next time…
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