What Time Is It?

Imagining that my life were a 24-hour day, what time would it be now? It’s hard to contemplate: would my answer be determined by how long I would like to live or by how long I already have? Hmmm, I’m not so sure of which, or if indeed either would count. Really, not many people would give it a thought.

However, have you noticed how your priorities quickly change when you realize you have deadlines or are given a time ultimatum?

Really, if you were told that from this moment, you had exactly 5 years, 3 years, 2 years or just one more to live, or perhaps a month, or a week or only 1 day, what are those things that would suddenly appear in your to-do list or immediately jump the queue to occupy your top 10? These are the things you should do now.

I remember reading a story of a widower who was rummaging through his wife’s things and saw some lingerie she had bought a few days before her demise. She had planned to wear it on some special occasion. She never did because for her that day never came. But if she had known that she would not live to witness that special event, would she have worn it to the mall or the office or some other “less special” place? Perhaps.

Some get the wakeup call after an accident, or at the doctor’s office – the grim announcement of a terminal illness, for example – and everything takes on new meaning.

Although what we consider important is sometimes determined by our milieu, I believe that there are things that are key in the absolute sense, irrespective of our race or background, things without which we cannot be called successful, no matter the magnitude of our material achievements. In my opinion, there’s spirituality and there’s family. There’s relationship and the pursuit of that natural God-given talent, perhaps other things too.

Whatever our wakeup call is though, it is usually time to de-clutter our lives and use our mental secateurs to trim out unnecessary quests- distractions at best – and instead nurture the things that really matter. Our garden looks its best after it has been recently pruned. In a similar way, we will feel and look our best when we take out all the muddle and let the real stuff command our attention.

So what time is it? Time to forge that friendship or mend that relationship, write that book or start that blog or tell that special person how you feel about him or her? Whatever it is, the time is now and the place is here.