“The key is in not spending time, but in investing it.” – Stephen Covey
“I really should have listened when people told me I would only have 18 summers. But now that we are entering the last one before they go to college, I can’t figure out where the time went!” So goes the awareness of the reality for parents of recent graduates.
“When I have more time this summer I’m going to finally take on cleaning out the garage.” So goes the hopeful, perpetual procrastinating friend.
“I never thought I would be this busy in retirement.” So goes the baffled previous colleague who imaged a different life in their post-work years.
“Tick tock tick tock
Time keeps on slippin’, slippin’, slippin’ Into the future
I want to fly like an eagle to the sea
Fly like an eagle Let my spirit carry me
I want to fly like an eagle ‘Til I’m free”
Steven Miller’s 70’s hit is as timely as ever. Tick tock – time never stops, it just keeps slippin’ into the future. The challenge is that most of us have created an illusion or a rationalization that there is more time just right over the horizon. That reality however is a mirage. Like an upcoming roadside attraction, if we are not paying attention, not being intentional, we are quickly going to pass it by.
Staying in the 70’s genre, the Rolling Stones:
“And time waits for no one, and it won’t wait for me
Yes, time waits for no one, and it won’t wait for me
Drink in your summer, gather your corn
The dreams of the night time will vanish by dawn”
Time does not wait for anyone.
It is dynamic, fluid, and continuous. It moves relentlessly forward, indifferent to our plans, excuses, and delays. Left unattended, it simply passes us by.
Yet we are not without agency amid the endless sweep of the second hand.
“The bad news is time flies. The good news is you’re the pilot.” – Michael Altshuler
In my experience, a significant shift occurs when we move from saying, “There will be a time,” to identifying a specific time. Vague intentions rarely become reality. Purposeful commitments often do.
There is a profound difference between saying, “Someday I should call my friend,” and “I will call my friend on Tuesday afternoon.” One is a wish, the other is a decision.
We cannot stop the clock. We cannot recover lost years. But we can choose how we inhabit the moments we have been given.
The question is not whether time is passing.
The question is whether we are awake enough to notice it, grateful enough to cherish it, and intentional enough to use it well before the next tick and the next tock become another year gone by.
“Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” – Psalm 90:12
BP