We know the exact moment our time on Earth began
but…since we don’t know when it will end
may we think of time less as an enemy
and accept her as our friend
And in the span that she has given us
before she puts us all to bed
may we treat the world with kindness
and leave no important word unsaid.
Why do so many of us only come tor realize our time on Earth is precious after someone dies?
Why is it so many of us say…“I should have taken more time with them
to love…
to laugh…
to play….
only after that person has left us…only after they’ve passed away?
Why does it take a person dying to make us think of the world we wanted to create?
Why do we wait to do all the things we should have done…
until it is too late?
I wish everyone could understand before a death…
how time is a gift
bestowed upon us by our creator…
from above…
a gift to be shared over and over again
with all of those, in life, we love.
I wish we all would spend more time
with the ones we love
while the ones we love still live…
because ‘more time’ is a gift…
the creator does not give.
I had a conversation in the bookstore the other night with a couple about my age…the husband is battling prostrate cancer…it’s in its final stage.
He’s undergoing a new radium infusion therapy…having endured chemotherapy and radiation’s rays…and they were pleased to announce this was the first time he’d been out of the house in days.
“We’re hoping this therapy gives me a little more time.” He said and his wife readily agreed. “Because,” and here he smiled, “there’s a few more books I’d like to read.”
He bought a couple of books…his wife put them in her sack…and he smiled at me as they slowly walked away saying, “God willing…I’ll be back.”
As I watched them walk away I thought…what a different world we see… when we come face to face…with our own mortality.
I imagine when we’re looking at the end…when we know we’re living our final days…what’s important to us rises to the top…while what isn’t slips away.
I imagine we might wish for one more moment…when we know our life will be over soon…to make more footprints in the sand…or gaze up at the moon.
One more moment to hug our family…to look into their eyes…one more moment just to wake up and see one more sun begin to rise.
That’s what I found myself wishing for this man…as he faded from my sight
Hoping he’ll have more moments….as for his life he fights.
I know in the time he has left…there’s nothing he will overlook…
and I’m hoping he has a few more moments…to read a few more books.
Times moves forward…she stops for no one
perhaps that’s why the wise ones say
we must cherish every minute…
every moment…
of every day.
Perhaps that’s why as parents
we try to make every moment with our children last
knowing, from experience, childhood is over much too fast.
Knowing once their childhood is over we only have time to blame…
as to why summers and Christmases and holidays
are never quite the same.
Which is why, I imagine, there isn’t a parent out there
once all their children have grown
who…when they look around their house
and find themselves alone…
would give just about anything
to bring back one more childhood moment
would love to find a way…
for their children to be children again…
if just for one more day.
They’ve spent so much time at home…many a night and day
No traveling, no restaurants…from the experts guidelines they do not stray.
Since they could not physically journey…no traveling to or fro
they decided to travel through time…and oh the places they would go.
They know time has a way of controlling life…
for schedules they do not lack
They know time keeps moving forward and is never moving back.
But they know memory is different…they think of it as one of life’s little jewels.
Memory snubs its nose at time and refuses to embrace her rules.
So they’d go back in time and remember moments when they were children
when all they did was eat and sleep and play…
Specific moments…they’d remember…as if they happened yesterday.
He remembered the first time he said, “I Love You.”
He remembered a feeling so wonderful and new.
He even remembered what he was wearing
when she said…”I Love You, too.”
They remember the day they were married…when their began life anew
They remember so many moments as they grew old together too…
They remembered when their daughter was born…
Holding in their arms…a life so precious and new
and in the next moment they remembered
holding her daughter in their arms too.
So they’ve spent a lot of time together
remembering moments of their life with ease…
forward and backward…flying through time
stacking memories any which way they please.
They say time travel is impossible…
but this couple…now old and gray…
as they sit home during this pandemic…
has somehow found a way
I am often amazed how quickly time flies by.
How so much seems to happen in the mere blink of an eye.
For there was a time, not that long ago
when for us life took an ironic twist.
A time when we were nothing…a time when we didn’t exist.
Then, in the blink of an eye, somewhere in the universe
it was decided, decreed…perhaps fated
that, in the blink of an eye, two people would fall in love
and in the blink of an I we were created.
In the blink of an eye we opened our eyes.
In the blink of an eye we were walking.
In the blink of an eye we were thinking.
In the blink of an eye we were walking.
In the blink of an eye we were married with a family a house and a job
In the blink of an eye we were retired…
In the blink of an eye, if we’re lucky, we realize
we have everything we ever desired.
For when you reach a certain age
you find you have a lot of time to think
and you realize what makes life meaningful…
what makes life important
what gives life it’s beauty
is what happens between the blinks.
THE SHADOWS LEFT BEHIND.
Time is like a cloud that passes quickly overhead
but if we’re lucky we will find…
after she has passed…
the shadows she’s left behind…
And in these shadows that remain
that have not continued flying on the breeze…
is where our memories rest…
In moments such as these:
Moments when two grandchildren were young…
When their life was more innocent…and free…
When they played in our backward
Where they spent time up in our tree…
When they thought that I was magical…
When out of their ears I would pull money…
When they would laugh at all my jokes…
When they thought that I was funny.
Picnics, movies, sleepovers,
dinners where joy and laughter flowed with ease…
Life is made more beautiful
by moments such as these.
And as time’s passed over our grandchildren
how wonderful it is to find…
still floating in our memories…
the shadows she left behind.
It is said time moves ever onward…at a slow and steady climb…
but there is a wrinkle in that theory…a peculiarity in time.
The time that’s measured by our clocks marches forward…absolutely
The time that ages our once young bodies advances resolutely.
But there is a category, a kind of time that plays by different rules
defying all the lessons we once were taught in school.
It’s when old friends get together…for no matter how much time’s amassed
suddenly they are young again...as if time has never passed.
This is the wrinkle in the time continuum, a wrinkle all friends know
allowing them to pick up from where they left off years ago.
And for the time they’re back together…they feel a certain thrill
standing in a moment…where time is standing still…
If you want to see this wrinkle in time…it’s simple…
watch as old friends come together…then…
keep watching for the moment when they are young again.
Whenever I see a baby passing by me on the street
I smile…
you see I’m captivated by their baby hands and baby feet.
It reminds me of the miracle of birth
and
how swiftly our time goes
when I see their little fingers…
and count their little toes.
I remember when my children and grandchildren were babies…
Was it really that long ago
when I held their baby hands in mine
and tickled their baby toes?
And again I think how time moves ever onward
does not stop
will not repeat
and how we must cherish every moment
of baby hands and baby feet.
Knowing babies grow up…
that it’s all part of the plan
I look into the parents' eyes and whisper…
“Enjoy this while you can”.