Happy New Year, in a few hours it will be 2015 a new year with many new possibilities. I started my blog, “Life Happens” to reminisce and allow my readers to see through eyes that have seen and are seeing life and its changes. I have talked about these changes and how some are good while others don’t always seem to benefit life as we know it. As I grow older and as some say more mature, I find that time is speeding by at a speed that would make the Audubon drivers in Germany feel they are creeping. In the 1960’s, The Rolling Stones recorded a song entitled, “Time is on my Side.” The song is about a young boy who tells his girlfriend to have fun and do the town, but she will come running back to him because time is on his side. At one time, time was on everyone’s side, no restrictions, no cares, only life and fun that could be gathered from that life. That age was about 16, the teenage years when fun was the order of the day.
All teenagers dream about the day they can take their driving test and I was no exception. I remember as if it was yesterday, the day I got my driver’s license. My Dad took off work to drive me to the DMV to take my driving test. He had a gold 1968 Dodge Valiant, a square bodied vehicle that was nothing a teenage boy would want to drive but it was wheels and freedom. During the time when I had my learners license, I would go with Dad anywhere he went in hopes of driving. On Saturday afternoon, he would say “I am going to church Gary would you like to go,” he did not have to ask twice because I knew by going I could drive. I drove Dad everywhere and he must have had nerves of steel to trust a kid behind the wheel. Sometimes he would crawl into the driver’s seat and not ask me if I wanted to drive and the disappointment I felt was horrifying. I passed my exam and got my license and I drove my Dad back to work. He turned over the vehicle to me and I was so proud but so scared too. “What if I can’t remember all the things I needed to do, if I don’t stop at a stop sign or not see that car coming in my blind spot?” No worries because today I was somebody, a man with my own car and a lot of TIME! I set my sites on McEvoy High School and picking up my sweetheart, Brenda, to go for a ride and drive her home. Up until this time, I had depended on Brenda to drive me because she already had her license, but not today, I was driving. Time truly was on my side and I had a lifetime to drive around.
As the years passed, Brenda and I married and we noticed that time was not always on our side any longer. We had careers and had to allot the needed time to our employer in order to have an income to live on. Certain times to be at work, a time to leave for the day, additional time for special projects, and time to sleep to be ready for the next day’s work schedule. There was time needed to spend with both sides of the family, time allotted for church and then maybe a little time left for recreational activities with friends. We were young and full of energy so we were able to handle the time element fairly well. We didn’t need that much sleep so we maneuvered around and found time to do all the things necessary to have a fulfilled life. In the back of our minds we knew that life was long and we had time.
Years passed and children came along. We learned to adjust our schedule and make the needed time to give them the best and that included time. They would need naps, baths, reading stories before bed and rocking to mention a few things. We both had to give up and forgo some of our time to make time for our babies. Late nights when they were sick or just fussy and as they grew ball games and cheerleader practice took time, time that we forfeited because we were parents. Even though the work schedule became more hectic, we found the time because again we were young and TIME was on our side.
Middle age hit and for the first time I began to realize that time was beginning to move forward at a pace that was exceeding my realm of thought. Parents were beginning to need some of my time as they became older and not well enough to do for themselves. The children were teenagers and they were able to drive, so they could do more of the things they needed for themselves. But time for me and time for me and Brenda was not always readily available, work and care giving became the order for each day. The house needed to kept up, the grass needed mowing, the car needed repairs and I was traveling four days a week on the road, with occasional weekends at trade shows and meetings. I began to realize that there was not always enough time. As the years continued to pass by the day of retirement came and I envisioned all the time I would have when I could wake from a good night’s sleep to greet the day with nothing to do but what I wanted to do. Golf, fishing and playing with grandchildren, I had time now to do those things. However I quickly found that my days began to fill up with things to do, although I had no rush or particular deadline, I had lots to do. Now I am an old man in the winter of my life, 61 going on 62. Some will say, “Oh you are still young with a lot of years ahead of you.”That may be so, but I now am seeing that time is not on my side, the years seem to be flying by like the drone delivering packages for Amazon. I look back and wonder if the time I have had has been well spent or squandered on trivial things that didn’t matter, on things that could have been done differently. On the headstone of every grave there is a born date, a dash, and a death date, the dash is the time you have spent on earth. Ask yourself as I ask myself, does that dash tell a good story of the time you have had in your life.
I’m getting sleepy, gotta turn the computer off. I think it’s time for my nap.
“Life Happens”
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