“Time is free, but it’s priceless. You can’t
own it, but you can use it. You can’t keep
it, but you can spend it. Once you’ve lost it
you can never get it back.” – Harvey MacKay
Time. It is something that can be for us or against us (or so we would like to think). It seems like we live in a world today that thinks so much about time and so little at the time same. Let me clarify here, we want everything quickly, and we complain that we don’t have enough. We need to reflect on time more than we do probably. We need to take time to “smell the roses” The thing is that if we don’t take time to realize what we have it will be gone before we blink an eye.
For all the Dr. Who fans, you know that blinking results in death, so it may not be a good idea to even do that, lol. But in all seriousness, we take for granted what we have and then if we lose it and can never get it back, we are devastated which is rightly so. We need to look at the things that are handed to us and appreciate them, nothing is for granted.
I fall victim to this just as much as the next person, so I’m by no means saying that I know how to utilize my time to the fullest or appreciate all that I have. In having a conversation with one of my close friends tonight about time and not realizing how good we really do have it, I realized it’s something I should work on.
The quote above is one that really sparked my interest mostly because it says about the time that you can’t get back. So many times we say that we will “do it later.” I know I do! School work, actual work, spending time with friends, family, working out, getting a budget, eating well, etc. It’s a fact of the matter that we can’t get it back, and yet we still waste time.
Maybe this is why I’m such a busy person all the time…I’m constantly on the go. I have to be doing something. Period. You ask me to just relax, I’ll turn on music and start rapping. You ask me to sit quietly, I tap my foot. I’m thinking that genetics has a play in this because both of my parents have a great work ethic. My mom is all about visiting people and keeping up with social connections. My dad is all about going places. I on the other hand am a mix of the two. I may not always use my time wisely, but I like to be busy. Zumba, auctions, photography, a job, grad school….I do it all, and I love it. I wouldn’t trade it for anything else. It’s about time that I figured out what makes me happy (at least at the moment). With all this running though, other things that can take time get neglected.
Sleep can sometimes get neglected by me because I like to stay up late and get up earlier. But if there’s one thing that I don’t like to neglect is my value of people. If you ask me what’s important to me, you may get some generic answer on any given day like “graduating!” Really, though, my importance is based heavily on the people in my life, namely my family and friends. My family is awesome. There really is no other word for it. We’re weird, we make interesting jokes, but we come together. We have total acceptance, and we are loving. My parents are awesome. I wouldn’t trade them for anything, and I love them both dearly. My brothers, even though they have tormented me at times with trying to drown me or shoot me with an air gun, have been my best friends since we were younger. Add my family to the awesome friend base that I’ve gotten to solidify over the years and you have one great mix of people. People that I can rely on, people that I can talk to when I’m down, and people that know they can come to me. That’s one of the joys of going for counseling. You get to know so many different stories of so many different people. Everyone has a story worth telling, and I get to hear it and help them. As one of my profs put it yesterday, we’re in the hope business. It’s what we do. I can’t think of a better way to spend my time than helping people.
Time we spend with family and friends we never get back….but at least it was time well spent. So many times we go through life not realizing how good we actually have it. You really don’t know what you have til it’s gone. This can really vary from person to person though because everyone views time differently and everyone views success differently which is what makes the world go round.
Maybe our real successes is when we look at how good we had it and work on our dreams so that we can achieve what we want in life to feel successful. Maybe God has a way of showing us that we are on the right path even if there’s a million curves, hills, plateaus, and mountains. Maybe that’s what He intended for us. Like I said in a previous post, good or bad it’s our lives, and we are the ones that have to make the best of them. We all need to dream big and believe in ourselves. I have a sign on my apartment wall that says, “Believe in your dreams and they may come true. Believe in yourself and they will come true.” Challenge yourself, don’t let others get you done, and remember that not everything is easy. The time we have is precious and we should take the time to strive for the highest to achieve our dreams. At the same time we can’t forget the people in our lives most dear to us. Cherish your time, use it wisely, we don’t know how much we have left.