Days go by....

If we are not lucky, we will wake up one day having lived our entire life with nothing to show for it. No, I don't mean riches and material wealth. I am referring to the quality of our experiences, the richness of our life, the love of our family & friends, the depth of our convictions and proof of our own integrity in our actions.

As the moon sets on every day it shows us that more of the time we have been allotted in this lifetime is passing. A tangible sign that marks the hours, the minutes and the seconds that we have no control over.

Time and its measure will not change it is what we do with it that we can change. When the sun sets do you wonder what you did that day to make a difference in the world? To your friends? To your family? To your loved ones? To yourself?

I guess one of the good things with the sunsets - you know a sunrise is going to follow and that there is another chance to start all over again with what you may have missed from the day (or days) before. It's a pretty big gamble though - to assume that you will be present to "fix" things the next day. What if you are not? What if they are not?

I'm not trying to sound fatalistic, but waiting to do the right thing, take that scary step etc. might not always be the best way to do things. You might never get the chance again.

What is the worse that can happen - you try and what, you fail? Is that so bad? Is it not better to have tried and not succeeded than to not have tried at all. Does that in and of itself not make the choice to act a success regardless of the outcome?

We always think of time as something to be measured in decades, years, months, weeks, days, minutes, seconds etc., What would happen if we stopped quanitifying and thus allowing ourselves a "delay" timetable of "I'll do it later... I'll do it when... etc." "I'll be happy when... I lose this weight, when... (fill in your own blank).. It's almost as if we won't allow ourselves to be happy until it is too late to feel the joy ...

Maybe knowing we can say or do what we need to do, when we want to will take some of the pressure and fear away from a situation that makes us halt in retreat.

Time will pass us all - far too quickly that is a truth for all of us. What matters is how we use that gift of time. We spend so many years not knowing what to do with our time and our lives instead of embracing just living and being.

Perhaps that is how we get time to slow down and have some meaning - by simply being present in it. By being aware and open to whatever is happening and accepting it as it is and not trying to change it or question it. It just is.

Photo credit: Savonello - Luna Saracena2. http://www.flickr.com/photos/savonello/