Christmas Rush

“I’m in no hurry: the sun and the moon aren’t, either. Nobody goes faster than the legs they have. If where I want to go is far away, I’m not there in an instant.”
― Alberto Caeiro

The author Leigh Hershkovich has written “In the rush of life, it is quite easy to forget what’s important. As cliche as this is, it’s easy to take life for granted when you don’t have time to focus properly. It is only when life diverts from the ‘plan’ that we suddenly take time to see what is really important.”

A poignant and true statement of how easily we get wrapped up in trying to create a life instead of living our lives.

Not only do we speed about our day during the holiday Christmas rush, but most every day of the year we are pressing along faster and faster. No one is a stranger to this way of life. Multi-tasking with a cup of coffee in one hand, the other feverishly working the computer mouse; a day's worth of tasks to complete.

We rush through the grocery store shopping for the next holiday meal, all the while a cell phone is planted to our ear discussing even more plans. All of this having to occur before we pick up the kids, the dry cleaning or a day planner calendar.

A glance at the wall clock and wonder where the time went.

Have we forgotten how live life and are simply rushing around creating life instead? Do you ever slow down and enjoy longer moments or are those moments only fleeting? Can you slow down the rush of Christmas, of the month, the day or the hour and live what is important?

The maddening speed of Christmas is increasing even more as we near the actual day. Stop for a few minutes in your gift buying, in your perfect meal planning, in your party participation and reflect on the wonders of your life. Reflect upon the important things that will carry you to the end.

There is no need to reach the end in an instant. Enjoy this time, every day and the great and grand things in and about your life.

Stay inspired my friends.

Time and a Word

"...vita ch'è una cosa bella, non è la vita che si conosce, ma quella che non si conosce; non la vita passata, ma la futura." - Giacomo Leopardi

It is December 31, the final day of another year gone by. Time gets labeled with points to indicate its passage. We have dinner at a particular time, we wake in the morning at a particular time, we have to be to work at a particular time. We set an alarm to mark a point in time, we write down events on a calendar, we celebrate each and every moment as it arrives and leaves us.

Time could be considered purposeful only for the marking of those events and to order our lives. But time simply exists and exists only for a fleeting moment, a minute, a second, a nanosecond and then it is gone. It can never be repeated, it can never be captured in a bottle and it can never be undone.

Time leaves us only with the future.

If we were to call this, December 31 the last day would be to say there is no future. And of course we all know that tomorrow will occur. The Sun will rise on January 1, an alarm will go off awakening someone to the new day, others will be peering at their watch in hopes of arriving at work on time.

The future will happen.

You have a grand life laid out in front of you. Time is moving you towards that life which is your's to discover. There will be three-hundred and sixty-five days in a year to pursue and enjoy life. We will be hear again at the end of that "mark in time" to remind ourselves that continues to deliver us a future.

Go after your future with the knowledge that time will forever give us opportunities to live it to our fullest potential. Enjoy your new year, enjoy what lay ahead of you, enjoy your life.

Stay inspired my friends.

The English translation of the quote above is, "...life which is a beautiful thing, is not the life that you know, but what you do not know, not the past life, but the future."

Watching Time

“Time is what we want most, but what we use worst.” ―William Penn

Time exists for everyone and everyone has a different perception of that time. For some it goes by very quickly with never enough of it. While others believe it drags on and on in slow movement.

I believe though that we should use the time we have to be of good nature. We should be positive in as much as we can. We should attempt to pass goodness onto others.

In all cases, time will pass and there will be none left.

Make your time count for the good things and not the bad. In the end, people will remember your goodness if the majority of that time was spent in goodness. Your goodness will carry on in the lives of others.

Watch the clock if you must, but enjoy each of those ticking moments of your life. And stay inspired my friends.

Time Passing

"The future is something which everyone reaches at the rate of 60 minutes an hour, whatever he does, whoever he is." -C. S. Lewis

Wednesday comes like a wishful gift to a work week for so many. It is likened as "hump day", in which we've climbed a hill that represents the work week. Many feel that if they can just make it to this day, the rest of the work week will be easy. But experience tells us that life doesn't play by our rules.

We can plan to have a nice slide down the hill towards Friday, but circumstance can alter the topography. It could very well be a Sisyphus kind of week in which we are constantly pushing the boulder up the hill. Only to find that the weekend is short and the boulder is once again ready for us.

The good thing in all of this is that time is truly a constant. The minutes, hours, and days come at us in the same constant fashion. We can't wish it to slow down nor can we jump past the present. It is an equalizer of sorts amongst all of us. We each must live the minutes, hours, and days in order to reach a future point in time.

So before we get to Friday at 5:00 PM, all of Wednesday, Thursday and the waning hours of Friday must be experienced. So whatever life and circumstance is going to throw at us, try to enjoy each minute of it. The good, the bad, the ugly are all part of the life experience.

***Yes, that was a link to one of my favorite movies.

Time will pass on its own. It is up to us to make the most of it and not wish it away. How we live during those moments is what matters. I say choose to enjoy those moments and in the collective end, our time here will have been more enjoyable than not.

Time Begins Now

Soft Watch At Moment of First Explosion ~by Salvador Dali

"Until you value yourself, you won't value your time. Until you value your time, you will not do anything with it." ~M. Scott Peck

Yes, the painting by Dali represents the last few moments before the end of time. But the representation could be what happens to time as it passes us. Or maybe it is the idea that time is slowly melting away from us. In many instances, where does time really go?

The start of a new year such as 2010 is the marking of time only. Some use it as the beginning of something different and the end to something old. For others it is a continuation of both. Either way, time is a resource and what we do with it matters greatly.

Time unused can be considered in some ways, time wasted. Does this mean one has to be productive with every waking moment? Not at all. There are things you want to do in your life. You want more 'things', you want more 'accomplishment', you want a 'greater life'. Yet if all you do is 'want', then time slips away and is wasted.

Eventually time is gone, melted away and lost forever.

But if you believe in yourself, if you respect your ability and worth to the short time we actually have, then time becomes meaningful. It will become a valued part of your life. Use time in the benefit of the life you live. It will create a much greater life.

Time is on your side more then it is against you. Use the time you have. Do not wait until tomorrow. Begin now...

Devoted Lives

Since the passing of my mother in October of 2008, I have been searching for something. A piece of understanding about the relationship of two people being married for nearly 60 years. It is not a burden upon my spirit but a yearning to know what it means.

In the search for that meaning of their life together, it occurs to me that it can serve as a lesson. A lesson of devotion, commitment and love that two people can achieve. I would read poems and inspirational words from many different sources. Words of Austen and Dickinson to Shakespeare and Whitman, with many different verse in between.

To my surprise I found the words in the notes of Thomas Jefferson. He and his wife Martha were married for a mere 10 years, but their bond was one that only two people can understand fully. As Martha Jefferson lay dying in September 1782, she began to write out sentimental words to express a sense of the situation. She wrote, copying from her husband's own literary book, lines originally adapted from Laurence Sterne's Tristram Shandy.

It is these words that complete my own parent's relationship of 59 years. One that I choose to remember and move on from. It will guide me in my father's remaining days and my own.

"Time wastes too fast: every letter I trace tells me with what rapidity life follows my pen, the days and hours of it are flying over heads like clouds of (a) windy day never to return -- more every thing presses on --"

At this point she could write no more, but the words continue in Thomas' own handwriting.

"and every time I kiss thy hand to bid adieu, every absence which follows it, are preludes to that eternal separation which we are shortly to make!"
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Time Well Spent

“Time goes by so fast, people go in and out of your life. You must never miss the opportunity to tell these people how much they mean to you.” -Unknown

The year is drawing to a close and a new one quickly approaches along the horizon. We have done so much this past year, gathered new friends and greater purpose in our lives. We have also lost loved ones, missed opportunity and in some ways lost time.

“Lost wealth may be replaced by industry, lost knowledge by study, lost health by temperance or medicine; but lost time is gone forever” -Samuel Smiles

The older we become, the more precious this time becomes. Those in their younger years that realize how to make use of time early, find that they can accomplish so much more. Time given to others in love and friendship; time given to make their world a better place to live in.

As we hold onto these remaining minutes of 2008, think of what is to come in 2009. We are not given an eternity in this life. Find a way to use the time we do have such that you will not be grasping onto every final minute. So that time will have been felt well spent.
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What Time Is It?

Busy couple of days here and travelling tonight so I may not get to write for another day or so. I recently accepted a new job position within my company. Its a different kind of job but similar in nature to what I do now. I have been somewhat hard pressed to explain why I am making this change.

There are plenty of reasons why and of course the new challenges that I'll be faced with are exciting. A musical group from the 70's called YES wrote a song called Time and Word that has a lyric in it that tends to explain it. The lyric goes, "There's a time and the time is now and it's right for me, It's right for me, and the time is now."

The time is right for me and I'm making movement in my life, I'm making a change. It is the same thing I've said many times to many of you. To change your life, you need to create movement. There will never be a better time then now to do so. For me, that time has come.