Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,
Old Time is still a-flying;
And this same flower that smiles today
Tomorrow will be dying.
The glorious lamp of heaven, the sun,
The higher he’s a-getting,
The sooner will his race be run,
And nearer he’s to setting.
That age is best which is the first,
When youth and blood are warmer;
But being spent, the worse, and worst
Times still succeed the former.
Then be not coy, but use your time,
And while ye may, go marry;
For having lost but once your prime,
You may forever tarry.
Robert Herrick – “To the Virgins, To Make Much of Time”
Our lives are ruled by two hands on a face. Some say it’s a constant countdown, while others claim it’s simply a way to organize life as we know it. Nevertheless, time spins the Earth on its axis. Alarm clocks scream at us to wake up. Timers count down to assignments due at 11:59 p.m. Stopwatches with a 0.001 second precision determine if we make it to the state meet. Notifications from laundry apps loudly announce, after 54 minutes, that our laundry is ready to be folded and put away. Grandfather clocks at our grandparent’s house strike a deep, reverberating melody as the minute hand hits the top of the hour. Every time we open our phones, there it is, the three to four numbers that run everyone’s day-to-day life. Wake up to schedules, deadlines, meetings, assignments, countdowns, then eat, sleep, and repeat. Seconds tick by. You are five years old learning to tie your shoes. A minute passes. You are 11 years old playing in your first tackle football game. 30 seconds slide by. You are 14 years old in the car on the way to your first homecoming dance. Tick, tick, tick… You are walking at graduation, high school diploma in hand and a huge smile on your face. Then, in just the blink of an eye, you are studying late at night for your molecular biology exam scheduled for 0800 the coming morning in October of your sophomore year of college.
The clock doesn’t stop. If anything, time seems to go faster and faster as we age. Have you ever noticed that? When we were children, days never ended. Summers didn’t go by in the blink of an eye, as they were jam-packed with excitement and adventures and imagination. Now, every day goes by so quickly. Someone close to me reminded me recently that I’m almost 20 years old, and if, God willing, I live to 100, that means that I am already 1/5th of the way through my life. One out of every five days that we are alive has already been lived. And, perhaps the most somber thought of all is that we can’t just get them back. People keep telling me to live in the moment or not to take so many pictures, as I won’t be able to enjoy life if I’m always looking through a camera lens. I couldn’t possibly disagree more.
Years ago, while my great-grandmother was in hospice with dementia ravaging her mind, I pulled up a few pictures from a time when I was a little girl and she came to visit me. Immediately, she remembered stories that even I couldn’t recall from that visit. I have been taking pictures and videos of those close to me for years, and, even if they are no longer in my life, they remain. They act like digital diaries. Those pictures hold memories filled with happiness, pain, sadness, anger, etc. that one day I may forget unless I have a visual reminder. Those videos hold voices or sounds of laughter that I may never hear again in person. So, sure, live in the moment, but don’t forget the importance of having something to look back on. And, please, pick the rosebuds while you may, as time doesn’t stop moving.
Be First to Comment