Turn Around...

“Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit." Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. Instead, you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that."… (James 4:14-15)

Time holds still for no one, as much as we would like to hold it tight in our hand and savor each moment...

Turn around

And the moment is gone.  Move on to the next one and there is nothing you can do to tie time down.

The 9 year old girl, who made wishes on daisies, ran through fields, no worries in her head, the same girl who twirled around and around giggling and laughing because it made her dizzy, excited because tomorrow she’ll turn those “much awaited double digits” – 10.

Turn around

That same double-digit girl, the one who did pirouettes at  the age of 9 looking forward to “13” sits on her bed looking at Teen Magazine. Barbie dolls now tucked away in a box on the attic floor, their former place of occupancy now taken up by ten different shades of neon fingernail polish and pictures of the latest boy band.

Turn around

That same girl’s sweet 16.  The world feels as though it is her stage, her thoughts are about the cute guy in English class, the upcoming weekend and her girlfriends blowing up her phone with texts.  What outfit she should wear tomorrow, which concert she should attend and how to successfully apply liquid eyeliner.

Turn around

She’s 18 and graduating from high school – hopes and plans gearing her up towards college and leaving home. Her car's packed up and that baby girl you brought home from the hospital just yesterday is off to begin her own life’s journey. Thoughts of the future filling her head, you stand in her empty bedroom looking at remnants of the years that have passed wondering how they have gone by so swiftly.  Remembering your own youth and in awe over the quick passage of time.  Time you can’t hold on to. Time you can’t bring back, time that has brought about many changes.  You were once that same girl and now you stand, looking at your daughter’s vacant room.  Reminiscing and wondering how time could go by so quickly.  Wishing there was a way to prolong each moment but knowing there is not.  Bittersweet moments – some you wish you could redo, others you wouldn’t change a bit.

Yesterday you were rejoicing over the pink bundle of joy you were just bringing home…

Yesterday - you were laughing in delight over the innocent tactics of a 9 year old…

Yesterday - you were wondering how you were going to make it through her teenage years…

Yesterday -you were staying up late waiting for her to come home from her first date. Thinking of all the ways you would maim the young man if he broke your daughter’s heart…

Yesterday – you were wondering when it was she had grown taller than you…

Turn around

And you’re wondering where the time has gone. Moments that you hadn’t known you had taken for granted, you realize you had.  Time waits for no man, stops for no one and you wonder why (as you have gotten older) those lazy days of summer have sped up?  What age did that begin to happen?  Why can’t they slow back down?

Turn around

Instead of looking ahead of you, you find yourself spending more time looking back.

Turn around

Your hair is grey, your body is older and simply not cooperating with you as it has done in days gone past... Yet you are the same person you always were.  Others may not see it.  They may view you as an “old person” but inside you are still the same.  You’re now known as a “Senior Citizen.”  And while it has some discounting perks, it’s hard to accept because:

Inside you are still  - that same 9 year old girl who lay on the grass and made shapes out of the clouds up above.  That same girl reappears when your grandchildren come to visit, and you revisit with them all those interesting discoveries of days gone past, as you introduce them to things your parents, aunts, uncles or grandparents introduced to you, when you were a child... Or perhaps you find yourself having that "how do youuuuu knowwww?" Argument with your grandchild at the table and your legs have suddenly shrunk down to the size of a 6 year old's and your feeling like your wearing those Mary Jane shiny black shoes again and your hair is in pinktails - all because your grandson questioned your "wisdom" with a "how do youuuuuuuuu know???" You shake your head and laugh at yourself for your childish response because you just realize he brought out that "inner child" in you.

Inside you are still  - that 13 year old who dances around the living room when a song from one of the boy bands you once worshiped comes on the radio, bringing with it all the memories of those teenage years.

Inside you are still  - that 16 year old who looks at that same boy band and giggles now at how old they look, but thinking how you would still “ooooh and aaaahhhh” over them if you saw them today in person.

Turn around

Life goes by so quickly. We don’t have any choice in the matter, time passes whether we want it to or not... The only choice we have is to live well, to make every moment count and to handle each moment as gracefully and sincerely as we can.  We have no control over how quickly it goes by or to some degree what happens in those moments we are given.  So laugh often, live fully, love greatly, hug tighter, don't forget to say your "I love you's" and thank God for each precious gift of a new day that He gives you.  Because that is what life is – a very precious gift.

Our cemeteries are full of markers of people who once had lived. They lived as you and I.  Real people, same worries, same problems, same laughter, same desires, loves and memories – only different eras. Each had their own story. What is your story? You may not be able to go back but you can live a life that is full of memories.  Memories you can bestow to your children and their children and their children’s children, so in a sense, we live on through others memories of us.

Turn around

Look, another moment is gone.. We are on to the next...  Hey, let's be that 9 year old, 10 year old, 13 year old, 18 year old, senior citizen - whatever stage we are at in life, let's make it count…