Time Travel
Posted on Feb 10, 2010
The newest installment of the Olympic Games opens this weekend; this time the winter games are being held in snow-starved Vancouver, B.C. The games, whether winter or summer are filled with contests judged by elapsed time. The older one gets, time vaults rung upon rung on the ladder of importance. With the passing of each friend and family member, and with each year’s repeat of a treasured event or holiday, I am reminded that time truly is a precious gift.
It is common to speak of never having “enough hours in the day.” This of course is fallacy. The number of hours in each day has been fairly constant for millions of years! When I reflect honestly, it is easy to notice that even if my days were 48 hours long, I STILL would not have enough time. My problem with time is a “priorities problem” not a “time problem.” Years ago now, the time-thoughts of an unknown author caught my attention; those thoughts went something like this:
Imagine that there is a bank that credits your account each morning with $86,400; however, it will not carry over a single penny’s cash balance from day to day. Each morning the bank cancels whatever part of the credit you failed to use during the prior day. The bank provides a new credit and you must begin anew. What would you do? Draw off every cent every day, of course!
Everyone has such a bank. Its name is TIME. Every morning you are credited with 86,400 seconds. Every night it writes off as lost whatever you have failed to use. No balance is carried forward. No overdrafts! Each day a new credit, each evening the account record is burned. If you fail to use the credit for the day, the loss is yours. You must live in the present on today’s deposit. Invest it wisely, the clock is running!
To realize the value of ONE YEAR, scan your family photo album in year-long increments;
To realize the value of ONE MONTH, ask a mother who has given birth to a pre-mature baby;
To realize the value of ONE WEEK, ask the editor of a weekly news journal;
To realize the value of ONE DAY, ask the day laborer with 5 mouths to feed;
To realize the value of ONE HOUR, ask the lovers waiting to meet;
To realize the value of ONE MINUTE, ask a person who arrives at the gate as their jet is pushing back;
To realize the value of ONE SECOND, ask a person who has just survived a near-fatal car accident;
To realize the value of ONE MILLI-SECOND, ask the Olympic athlete who is standing on the Silver or Bronze Medal Platform in Vancouver!
Use one of your seconds today to treasure the time you have been given!
