You cannot buy time…or manufacture it…or capture it in a bottle. Neither can you borrow it or steal it, but you can make the most of it.

 

Are we careful how we live? Or do we squander one of life’s most precious assets?

 

As quickly as a day comes, it is gone. What do you hold sacred? What compels you to spring into action?

 

Some may say come to me tomorrow when tomorrow may never come. Others do not want to be schooled in the matter. Most want nothing to stand in the way of their desires.

 

And yet, time plays a trick on us all. First tiptoeing in silence then racing past until everything is a blur.

 

I remember long summer days that seemed to never end. Great escapes where the last light of day would linger until the street lamps would turn on.

 

There was always a sweet place between the light and the dark…before the moon would cradle in the curve of the sunset. It seemed with night’s unfolding our desires gasped awake, and in youth we would stand unabashed.

 

Seeing my life’s days pass makes me consider these things. Did I “do” the most, or did I “care” the most?

 

We can pass lightly or like clashing cymbals knock our way past. We can stand aside, hoping to go unnoticed, or we can sit with the night long and join in the song. The next time your heart is quickening, behold another. Stand and turn your eyes on them.

 

May you meet their gaze.

May you have the words of a poet.

May you be seen when you see another.

May you seek out the hidden path. Remember the golden sunsets of yester year.

May you be bold, forgiving, enamored.

May you wake in the last hour before dawn and marvel at the dawn.

May you hear the babble of waters, see the light hidden behind the stars.

May you rise above the pandering and the gossip and ford the river fare.

 

You see, beauty abounds. So does patience and courage if you leave judgment behind. Foolishness and folly is a common opinion of man. Rather may you turn your primeval pride and fling back pettiness—the fable of all great men—and follow the rare and beautiful wisdom that causes you to pause in the hush of that breathless summer day…as if the silence awakened you to the echo.

 

I pray that I pause. That I look. That I listen. That time does not drowse me to sleep, but that I awaken each day to discover who I am and who I was created to be.