Thoughts on Time
Lately I find myself more and more conscious of the passing of time. It may be some kind of mid-life crisis, but there really and truly don't seem to be enough hours in the day. Or so it seems.
The fact is, there are the same number of hours in a day that there always were: 24 to be exact. There are 1440 minutes in a day, 86,400 seconds. As C.S. Lewis said, "The future is something which everyone reaches at the rate of sixty minutes an hour, whatever he does, whoever he is."
And so I find myself with time to spend like precious and oh so few pennies. I try to hoard it, but it slips through my fingers.
I find myself wondering - is time something you make, or something you find?
Every minute of our lives is made up of choices. We choose how to spend our seconds just as surely as we choose how to spend our pennies. The seconds we squander won't ever be regained. If we put work before family, our children may grow up behind our backs, and we will find ourselves examining photographs of little children that no longer exist. We turn our heads and our daughters are off to the prom; our sons taking the keys to the car. We are left holding the shovel to the sand box with no one nearby to play.
We may sacrifice the time we spend with our families for work. We may allow people to steal slivers of time with mindless chitchat, cell phone conversations, waiting too long in line. How much time do we really need to sleep? How much sleep do we dare sacrifice before we endanger our health? Are we wasting time on things that are unimportant, like television? Benjamin Franklin said, "Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time for that is the stuff life is made of."
Here's a phrase to ponder: killing time. Why would we want to kill time? Henry David Thoreau commented, "You cannot kill time without injuring eternity."
I've heard time stands for "This I Must Experience." I hear the clock ticking, and I know I am right where I'm supposed to be, even when I believe otherwise.
There are wounds that only time can heal, and then time becomes our friend, and not a curse. The passage of time can be comforting in times of pain.
It's all about priorities, I think, and doing the best we can to spend our minutes and seconds wisely. It's about forgiving ourselves for mistakes and planning what we will do with whatever seconds remain. The older I get, the more I cherish every single minute, especially the minutes and seconds I get to spend with my children.
I think Will Rogers said it best: "Half our life is spent trying to find something to do with the time we have rushed through life trying to save."
What are we trying to save time for? That's what we should be doing with it. We are responsible for our choices.
The clock is ticking.
The fact is, there are the same number of hours in a day that there always were: 24 to be exact. There are 1440 minutes in a day, 86,400 seconds. As C.S. Lewis said, "The future is something which everyone reaches at the rate of sixty minutes an hour, whatever he does, whoever he is."
And so I find myself with time to spend like precious and oh so few pennies. I try to hoard it, but it slips through my fingers.
I find myself wondering - is time something you make, or something you find?
Every minute of our lives is made up of choices. We choose how to spend our seconds just as surely as we choose how to spend our pennies. The seconds we squander won't ever be regained. If we put work before family, our children may grow up behind our backs, and we will find ourselves examining photographs of little children that no longer exist. We turn our heads and our daughters are off to the prom; our sons taking the keys to the car. We are left holding the shovel to the sand box with no one nearby to play.
We may sacrifice the time we spend with our families for work. We may allow people to steal slivers of time with mindless chitchat, cell phone conversations, waiting too long in line. How much time do we really need to sleep? How much sleep do we dare sacrifice before we endanger our health? Are we wasting time on things that are unimportant, like television? Benjamin Franklin said, "Dost thou love life? Then do not squander time for that is the stuff life is made of."
Here's a phrase to ponder: killing time. Why would we want to kill time? Henry David Thoreau commented, "You cannot kill time without injuring eternity."
I've heard time stands for "This I Must Experience." I hear the clock ticking, and I know I am right where I'm supposed to be, even when I believe otherwise.
There are wounds that only time can heal, and then time becomes our friend, and not a curse. The passage of time can be comforting in times of pain.
It's all about priorities, I think, and doing the best we can to spend our minutes and seconds wisely. It's about forgiving ourselves for mistakes and planning what we will do with whatever seconds remain. The older I get, the more I cherish every single minute, especially the minutes and seconds I get to spend with my children.
I think Will Rogers said it best: "Half our life is spent trying to find something to do with the time we have rushed through life trying to save."
What are we trying to save time for? That's what we should be doing with it. We are responsible for our choices.
The clock is ticking.