My gift from Kana

Time!....
The Time has Come Today...
Time!....
For young hearts to go there way...

I went for a walk after my last post and this song from my youth and various commercials kept running through my head.

When you think about it Time is our one truly unrenewable resource. If you consider the average life expectancy, we have 718200 hours. That's a lot of hours, but every one we let go we don't get back.

I was thinking about my last two years where circumstance has granted me more time than usual and I was reflecting on how exactly I've used it. I'm pleased to say that a good portion of it has been dedicated to fulfilling one of my goals.

I thought then about that goal and it's real purpose and like so many of the things in my life, it's true purpose is to prepare me for the thing I really want to be doing. I have in fact spent a good portion of my life up to this minute preparing. Then I started thinking about little Kana and thought while spending time and energy to prepare myself for what I wish to be is in no way wasted time, perhaps I ought to spend at least an equal amount of time and energy BEING who I am today.

Time!...

I have spent time in eastern mystic philosophies so "live in the present" is not a new concept for me by any means, but to think of it in terms of effort to be in the present, spending will and thought to be who you are today is an entirely different spin.

I've got lots of plans and ideas for where I want to go, but somehow I spend a lot of the time given to me focusing on hours in the future and that is a sure fire way to lose senselessly the one wrapped around me. "Life is what happens while you're busy making other plans." It's a statement of consolation and resignation, but from another angle it's the perfect expression of looking too much forward.

No one knows how much time they have remaining, but it is only the terminally ill that I've ever heard think of life in terms of hours remaining. Maybe there is some elegant wisdom in expressing what's before you in terms of what you have left. Perhaps this simple linguistic shift will help me consider those hours a stored resource that once used is irrevocably gone.

While this could easily lead to morbidness, I feel a bit like I have been given a gift, a liberation. I am luckily not terminally ill and given the lives of my immediate ancestors could perhaps lead a good long life but how much richer it will be if I marshal every hour and recognize it for the irreplaceable gift it is.

Thank you Kana.

Time!