Time
“Life is what happens to you while you are busy making other plans.” John Lennon quoted this line in his song “Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy)” which was released as a single in 1980. This sentiment takes on a darker tone when you consider that Lennon was fatally shot mere weeks after its release.
Think about it. We spend so much of our lives waiting to grow up, to graduate, to become gainfully employed, to have children, to move to a different city, town, house, or province, watch the children grow, retire, and eventually die. It can be a depressing thought, sure, if one decides to dwell on the “what ifs” and the uncertainties that are a part of life. Ultimately, it’s up to each and every one of us how we spend the hours that make up the days of our existence. Once all is said and done, life is far too short for regrets and it so important to help others along the way. Frank Capra explored the fragility of life and what could have happened had alternate paths been taken in his beloved 1946 classic “It’s a Wonderful Life”. In the end and with a little help from an angel, the protagonist comes to the heady realization that his existence had great merit and truly mattered.
The past forty-one years of my life have passed in a heartbeat. It’s an interesting thought, really, when you get down to it. Birth to age five is a blur, of course. I have fuzzy recollections that are brought into clarity through stories and photographs. Those primary to secondary school years passed in a flurry with the acquisition of knowledge, new skills, friends, short-lived foes, heartbreak, loss of loved ones, and crushes. While ages eighteen to twenty-three brought studies, love, loss, and new friendships, many hijinks and opportunities to be festive plus memories to last a lifetime were offered in the Residence scene. (My photo albums are packed away for safe keeping as I kid you not when I say I lived for three years in a place that made Animal House look like Romper Room. I digress. . .) A University semester of a lifetime in England as a fresh-faced twenty year old also brought me to places I had dreamed about since I was a teen.
From the placement of that pretty solitaire engagement ring on my finger in July 1999 to the wedding a short year later, life has been a continuous stream of milestones and growth ever since. In the more than a decade that has passed and in no particular order, I’ve been a wife, a University graduate, a teacher, a writer, a photographer, a nurse, a chauffeur, a counselor, a coach, a director, a sister, a friend, a daughter, a cousin, an in-law, a niece, an aunt, and an orphan. With the extensive list, I’ve experienced just about every emotion there is to feel. Of all the roles I’ve known, my most important one to date is a result of my relationship with my husband: mother. From the first time I heard those gentle little thumps from the fetal doppler sixteen years ago to now, life has been on fast-forward. It hasn’t always been easy but it’s been very rewarding and worthwhile.
I can’t help sometimes but reflect on the little ones that were to the teenagers they’ve grown into. And it’s funny too how everything seems to come full-circle. I have witnessed and shared in the laughter, the tears, and first crushes. I’ve beamed with pride and have experienced moments of frustration and doubt. I’ve sat through the recitals, the concerts, the practices, homework, and the lessons. I’ve brought them to church – even when this proved to be a struggle on occasion. I’ve read their stories, listened to their fears, their doubts. I’ve witnessed happiness and tears too. At the end of the day, I look forward to being there as they continue to learn, grow, and someday venture into the world.
The words of my sixteen year old self are fitting here. This little blurb still resonates with me years later. There may have been more, but the original piece is packed away. This, however, is the gist of it: “Life is strange. One moment, you could be sitting on top of the world. Then, at the slightest revolution, you take a tumble and almost fall off. But you don’t. You somehow manage to hold on and the earth keeps turning. You move forward. Picture an hour glass that slowly but surely has little grains of sand seep through the narrow opening to gather at the bottom. Every grain represents a happening or a milestone. One, however, cannot reverse the sands of time to relive a yesteryear. Now, compare your life to a new watch that runs by battery. Tick-tock. Tick tock. It steadily keeps time and mimics the rhythmic beating of the human heart. Unlike new watches, you cannot replace the batteries once time runs out. And life doesn’t come with a guarantee. So, live, love, and live each day to the fullest as today is all you might have left.”
Think about it. We spend so much of our lives waiting to grow up, to graduate, to become gainfully employed, to have children, to move to a different city, town, house, or province, watch the children grow, retire, and eventually die. It can be a depressing thought, sure, if one decides to dwell on the “what ifs” and the uncertainties that are a part of life. Ultimately, it’s up to each and every one of us how we spend the hours that make up the days of our existence. Once all is said and done, life is far too short for regrets and it so important to help others along the way. Frank Capra explored the fragility of life and what could have happened had alternate paths been taken in his beloved 1946 classic “It’s a Wonderful Life”. In the end and with a little help from an angel, the protagonist comes to the heady realization that his existence had great merit and truly mattered.
The past forty-one years of my life have passed in a heartbeat. It’s an interesting thought, really, when you get down to it. Birth to age five is a blur, of course. I have fuzzy recollections that are brought into clarity through stories and photographs. Those primary to secondary school years passed in a flurry with the acquisition of knowledge, new skills, friends, short-lived foes, heartbreak, loss of loved ones, and crushes. While ages eighteen to twenty-three brought studies, love, loss, and new friendships, many hijinks and opportunities to be festive plus memories to last a lifetime were offered in the Residence scene. (My photo albums are packed away for safe keeping as I kid you not when I say I lived for three years in a place that made Animal House look like Romper Room. I digress. . .) A University semester of a lifetime in England as a fresh-faced twenty year old also brought me to places I had dreamed about since I was a teen.
From the placement of that pretty solitaire engagement ring on my finger in July 1999 to the wedding a short year later, life has been a continuous stream of milestones and growth ever since. In the more than a decade that has passed and in no particular order, I’ve been a wife, a University graduate, a teacher, a writer, a photographer, a nurse, a chauffeur, a counselor, a coach, a director, a sister, a friend, a daughter, a cousin, an in-law, a niece, an aunt, and an orphan. With the extensive list, I’ve experienced just about every emotion there is to feel. Of all the roles I’ve known, my most important one to date is a result of my relationship with my husband: mother. From the first time I heard those gentle little thumps from the fetal doppler sixteen years ago to now, life has been on fast-forward. It hasn’t always been easy but it’s been very rewarding and worthwhile.
I can’t help sometimes but reflect on the little ones that were to the teenagers they’ve grown into. And it’s funny too how everything seems to come full-circle. I have witnessed and shared in the laughter, the tears, and first crushes. I’ve beamed with pride and have experienced moments of frustration and doubt. I’ve sat through the recitals, the concerts, the practices, homework, and the lessons. I’ve brought them to church – even when this proved to be a struggle on occasion. I’ve read their stories, listened to their fears, their doubts. I’ve witnessed happiness and tears too. At the end of the day, I look forward to being there as they continue to learn, grow, and someday venture into the world.
The words of my sixteen year old self are fitting here. This little blurb still resonates with me years later. There may have been more, but the original piece is packed away. This, however, is the gist of it: “Life is strange. One moment, you could be sitting on top of the world. Then, at the slightest revolution, you take a tumble and almost fall off. But you don’t. You somehow manage to hold on and the earth keeps turning. You move forward. Picture an hour glass that slowly but surely has little grains of sand seep through the narrow opening to gather at the bottom. Every grain represents a happening or a milestone. One, however, cannot reverse the sands of time to relive a yesteryear. Now, compare your life to a new watch that runs by battery. Tick-tock. Tick tock. It steadily keeps time and mimics the rhythmic beating of the human heart. Unlike new watches, you cannot replace the batteries once time runs out. And life doesn’t come with a guarantee. So, live, love, and live each day to the fullest as today is all you might have left.”
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