From Me to You

Brace yourself – I’m gonna give you a little wisdom.  A little something to think about.  It’s probably nothing you haven’t thought of yourself, many times over, or read about, in more eloquent words. 

It’s about time.

Now and then, I get a thought.  It – this particular thought – has occurred to me a number of times in the past couple of years, ever since someone very dear to me was diagnosed with a serious illness.

It’s about time.

Tonight, the thought again came back to me, much clearer than before, possibly brought on by ingestion of a small but delectable double chocolate cupcake.  I do some of my best thinking after a bit of the cocoa bean.  See, as I was partaking in this holy moment, I was also thinking.  I was thinking about how people suffer.  With good reason, they suffer.  None of us is immune from suffering.  I fight through those times as best as I can.  If you’re human, it’s part of your fight, too.  Yet, it’s also a rich part of our experience that some would argue must be embraced.  So what is this about?

It’s about time.

How do you spend yours? 

For us, once we got used to the idea that an illness was now part of our lives, with but a sketchy promise regarding the years ahead, and once we got past the early days, weeks, months of shock and grief, we began to think less of giving up our time.  We started asking ourselves:  If we only have a month, how will we spend it?  A year?  Ten years?   Would we look back ten years from now, if fortunate enough to be here, and see that each day had been given away?  Given up to worry and anxiety?  To anticipatory grief?  Would we see that we had wasted precious time?   

Or would we want to see something different – that we had laughed, looked at babies, hugged our grandchildren…gone to the movies, put words to paper, spent time with friends…read good books and bad ones, sent Valentines through the mail, loved each other, played games, walked in the sun…and in whatever way possible, delved into the business of living, even if that meant with sorrow and adjustment mixed in?

Now, sipping tea in the quiet, dimly lit cottage where we spend time for a little while longer, I look around at the complex mess on the counter, jackets strewn about, papers thrown sloppily in some semblance of a to-do pile or ten to-do piles, and I see the spoils of a day enjoyed, rather than wasted. 

It’s about time.

How will you spend yours?