Time

    It’s a new year. Customarily considered a time to make a fresh start at all the things you wish to change in your life, or to introduce new experiences into it. We sang Auld Lang Syne, kissed at midnight, and partied to end the old year, then passed out happily with visions of a new dawning in our dreams. Personally, I just stayed up till 2 am after watching “It’s a Wonderful Life” by myself (Laura Gail went to bed at ten thirty, like a grown up), then felt wonky all the next day. C’mon, folks, let’s face it: the New Year’s thing is simply an arbitrary calendar event. It’s a man-made event made “special” simply by being the end of one numerical series, followed by the beginning of another one. We’re just marking time.

    We make “New Year’s Resolutions” to do, or not do, all sorts of things. Lose weight, quit smoking, write the Great American Novel, or get muscles by going to the gym. Poppycock! If you wanted to do any of that, you’d do it. The calendar hasn’t a thing to do with it. If you have need of a starting line, an audience to cheer for you, and a finish line for your passions and goals, then by all means start on January First. I suppose that’s as good a time as any. Just know that time doesn’t work that way. Not even close.

    Time doesn’t care about the ticking of a clock. It doesn’t watch for a new day dawning with the sun. Time doesn’t even track the earth through it’s path around the sun. Time really doesn’t even blink when our earthly seasons change over and over again. No, time concerns itself with much bigger things than a numerical stamp, a date calculated and expressed by mathematicians from long ago, sands through an hourglass, or which paleantological era we consider ourselves in. It’s the Cenozoic (“new life’), or “age of mammals”, if you care to know. That’s what the geology buffs call it. I personally like to just call it “Now”. I think Time doesn’t care about all of the geological, astrophysical, or atmospherical aspects of recording time. I think Time has more important things to note, as it flies on by. Let’s see if we can examine just a few.

    Seeing your child born into this world. Hearing that baby cry for the very first time. Listening to the Universe’s greatest music: a baby’s laughter. Feeling the love in a child’s hug when he wraps you up in his arms. The fresh, honest smell of a sleeping, trusting child against your chest as he sleeps and dreams. The sound of first steps taken. The first conversation you have with a little human learning to talk. The feeling of pride in your soul while you watch him grow. Every single moment you are there to see that child live, learn and love is fleeting, but powerful. They are the most real moments of time you will ever experience. Those are the ones your heart keeps. Time smiles at you for a moment, then moves on.

    Time watches us lose people that we love along our way, too. The souls in our lives that leave this plane of existence and breathe no more are etched into our hearts the moment they are gone. We know that forever and eternity are far from us, until the day one of our loved ones go off to meet it in person. They leave a part of themselves with us, but never enough. We mourn and remember them, but Time moves on. I believe it sheds a tear for them, but it moves on, nevertheless.

    The only Time that truly exists is Now. You can only remember the past, it’s gone forever. The future can’t be glimpsed, or counted on. You can only exist in the Now. January First comes again next year. Don’t wait for it. The clock only ticks until the spring unwinds, or the battery dies. Right Now is your only chance. Enjoy it. Experience it. Use it to it’s fullest. Time waits for no one. You either do something with it, or you lose it. It’s just the way it is.

    Today, take an opportunity to do something new. Something different. Say something nice to a stranger. Be kind for no reason at all. Work on something important to you that you’ve always wanted to do. Put your phone down and listen to someone. Give away something you care about to someone else who may need it. Tell a corny joke to a child, or an adult. Be nice to a mean person. God loves them, too.

    Time is fair to everyone, but makes no excuses for being late, or early. We all live in the same part of it: Now. If you must have a resolution to express this year, then I have a suggestion. Resolve to live the fullest life you can in the moment. One moment at a time. Once Time passes, it’s too late. Do it Now.

    God bless y’all.