Kenny Chesney has a great country song titled “Don’t Blink” about the fleeting passage of time. Of course, it does seem to fly by faster when we’re enjoying ourselves instead of going to the dentist where I’m headed shortly. If you Google “fleeting time” you will find a plethora of quotes on the subject. And those observations cast a wide net over time and humanity. You have to believe that every human being that ever drew a breath on this planet has easily experienced fleeting time, especially since modern man invented the clock. But even earlier in time man watched the years, seasons and days slip by without ceasing.
Only our creator has been recognized as being timeless, while we mortal beings with frontal lobes understand that our beginnings have endings that arrive all too soon. Our pets wake up each morning living constantly in the present moment without the concern for endings. We could all take that lesson from them, understanding that life does have a stop date, but with the promise of another spiritual life.
I ran across a saying attributed to a native American, Chief
Crowfoot, to illustrate the fleeting aspect of life:
“What is life?
It is the flash of a firefly in the night.
It is the breath of a buffalo in the wintertime.
It is the little shadow that runs across the grass,
And loses itself in the sunset.”
We need to make peace with the passing
of time and embrace each waking moment we have without knowing exactly how much
sand is left in the hourglass. Using our
time wisely and intentionally also includes wasting some of it to recharge and
refresh. If we can learn from the past
and plan for the future, our present moments can be filled with gratitude, fearless hope, healthy
relationships and new possibilities.
