Time to Think

Two months ago, I was diagnosed with a small area of skin cancer on my chest.  This happened because I am the idiot who lives at the beach who forgets to use sunscreen most of the time. Fortunately, it’s not the kind that will kill me, but it is the kind that requires treatment 5 days a week for 6 weeks, and it’s kind of painful and a whole lot annoying. It’s also a reminder that life is fragile, and time is our most precious commodity, which got me thinking how fast time goes by… or does it?

For a while now I’ve made it a habit to give a daily prayer of thanks every morning. It’s usually just a short and simple prayer of gratitude for being given another day. But it’s also a fact that someday I’m not going to wake up, so I’m pretty darn thankful for each day that I do and figure it can’t hurt to express it. Saturday morning, as I finished up with my final skin treatment, my morning moment of contemplation and prayer got me thinking about how I use the time I am given each day, and whether or not I am I using it wisely?

That question was still rolling around in my head when I got ready for bed that night. So I took my wife’s hands, placed them in mine, and offered up a different type of prayer. Instead of short and simple, I took the time to give specific and detailed thanks for every single thing that happened on Saturday. I gave thanks for the way the sun rose over the beautiful blue ocean outside my window when I got up at the crack of dawn, for getting to play golf with an old friend and make a new friend at the same time, for the great breakfast my wife cooked for me when I got home, for the nice text message I got from one of my children, for getting to visit a sick friend in the hospital and brighten his day, for getting some work done on my computer, for being able to afford 3 large pizzas at Costco, for taking said pizzas to a family poker game at my Father-in-Law’s house, for getting to play cards and laugh with 10 members of my immediate family, for making it home safely after being a big loser in said poker game, for getting to watch a Little League game on TV, and so much more. By the time I was done, I realized that a typical day in my life may seem short, but in reality, I am involved in dozens and dozens of wonderful and interesting things that happen every single day.

Does time really go by too fast? Maybe, maybe not. If we take time to think about all the things that are happening in our daily lives… as they are happening… those small and simple moments can remind us just how awesome life really is.

How long a minute is, depends on 

which side of the bathroom door you’re on.

~ Zall’s Second Law