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Got Time?
Life's road to old age is marked with indicators that are subtle and
sooner or later it comes down to time and time management.
As time seemingly creeps along in our youth we have more energy than tasks and we dream of
doing all sorts of things with our lives.
A little older and the responsibilities of school and recreation
conflict and those are the first indicators that time is limited.
Older still and the tasks of managing and raising babies, coupled with the demands of work
along with the maintenance of our living quarters leaves little time for creativity and
personal recreation.
This will continue through middle age until the children themselves are grown and out of
our living quarters.
All through these years we longed for some quiet time to ourselves and yet when the
children are gone we miss the everyday turmoil and noise they caused and the silence that
we craved is frightening.
Retirement is upon you suddenly and you don't know how to respond to free time.
You daydreamed all through the preceding years about how wonderful it would be to have the
time come and go as you please and be able to pursue your dreams, free from deadlines and
commitments.
You imagine that time would slow down like it was when you were young and you could be
free to use the boundless time and energy you had when young.
Something strange has happened along the road, because time is flying and the energy is no
longer there.
You can think of a million pursuits but you are constrained financially, physically or by
time.
You don't seem able to keep up with the yard work, something you used to do in your off
hours after working a forty hour job and now you have the entire week to pursue it and
can't seem to keep up with the weeds, you don't have the time and you can almost hear them
growing and laughing at you.
The money you put aside for retirement seemed like it would be more than enough but
inflation eats it away and you find yourself settling for the store brands of food and
constantly shopping for the deal and that becomes a job in itself eating up more time.
We spent a lot of time when young testing our physical limitations and gaining strength
and endurance always rewarded by improvement as we learned what our bodies could and
couldn't do.
This process continues into old age but the process is reversed you learn quickly that you
can no longer do tasks that require great strength and endurance and yes you are still
rewarded, only this time with failure and lasting pain and sometimes that pain is only
psychological because you always prided yourself on your strength and endurance and losing
it is a hard pill to swallow.
Speaking of pills another indicator on the road to old age.
I have friends that mark time with little plastic holders with the days of the week
embossed on the top of each compartment with eight or more pills in each, they must
take these daily to survive and those pills are expensive thereby eating into their
retirement money and sometimes they must choose between eating or buying pills.
The road to old age teaches you that life isn't fair or equitable the
evidence was strewn all along the road but when you were young you ignored it or gingerly
stepped over it and now that you're old you can no longer ignore it as you stumble over
the evidence that looms larger than before. Is it larger or is it because it has started
affecting you or your friends and loved ones?
Old age constrains you to think of the past and reflect on your life for over the years
our own demise seemed too far away to contemplate so thinking of the future is grim in the
frame of time we're given.
Some of us are fortunate enough to realize early on that life and time is what we make it
and we made it a point to try all of the things we dreamed of when young when time was on
our side so when time starts running out there will be no thoughts of regret or "What
if I had done this or that?"
So all of you young folks, pursue your dreams and do all you can to live your dreams
because time will pass quicker than you think it will I promise.
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