#time

TIME AND TIME AGAIN

 

 

 

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.

 

 

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MORE TIME

 

 

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.

 
 
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A FEW MORE MOMENTS

 

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.

 
 
 
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FOR ONE MORE DAY

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.

 
 
 
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TRAVELING THROUGH TIME

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

 

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BETWEEN THE BLINKS

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.

 
 
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THE SHADOWS LEFT BEHIND

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.

 
 
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A PECULIARITY IN TIME

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.


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BABY HANDS AND FEET

 

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”.


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