I realized logging in this morning that it has been an entire month since I have updated this blog. Seems like a very long time. And yet, time is so irrelevant.
The above picture is Galen. He graduated pre-school in this past month. Had his first official field trip to the zoo as a celebration for the graduates. His brother, Lloyd is approaching high school graduation next week. This means lots of milestone moments. He received scholastic honors at the academic awards ceremony, played and marched in his last parade as a member of his high school drum line, track banquets, senior band banquets, senior awards ceremonies, … change.
The ticking of the proverbial clock is about change. With change there is learning and hopefully growth.
Time is all relative. Just ask Einstein 🙂 … All joking aside, in a universe created by an all loving and eternal being does time even become truly relevant? We talk about not having time and needing to make time and not having enough minutes in the day or the fact that our children seem to grow up so quickly and leave us wondering about ‘where the time has gone’.
I will admit that as spring came this year that thought has crossed my mind more than once. Spring time was Dean’s time. It was the start of hiking season, of planting, of parks and and creek hikes. It was a time to gather tad poles from the pond down the road and bring them home for the children to watch grow. It was a time to visit greenhouses and let the kids pick out simple plants to care for as Mom and Dad looked for the most unique item in the place to bring home.
Time.
Dean’s wedding band, which I thought was lost, showed up the evening of Galen’s pre-school graduation. Another symbol of time spent and without the wearer of the ring time that is now different than planned.
Time.
I have a friend that lives by the axiom YOLO (You Only Live Once) and hence need to soak up every life experience possible. Perhaps that is true. We are only here, on this planet, in this form once. Yet, time is relative and the Universe is loving — so loving that we, our Spirit, Our Soul through the love of Divine lives on FOREVER. We take these experiences, these lessons with us through ‘time’.
Instead of using the YOLO to justify the extremes a physical life has to offer I would challenge you and myself to use the acronym also as You Only LOVE Once. Love yourself, Love your neighbor, Love the life as it is now, Love your children and Love each and every breath. Love yourselves enough to take time on self development as well as self fulfillment. Love enough that it spreads and is carried through ‘time’. Love enough so that when you are faced with your own empty wedding band that the physical loss is overshadowed by the knowledge that Love is the one constant that is beyond time and space and will last into Spirit and beyond.
Replacing ‘time’ and the worries of not having enough, or that it is flying or that it was not used wisely etc and replacing that with the sharing, feeling and knowledge of Love and starting with self – YOU – time will no longer ever be an enemy — and it will be realized that it really does not exist. We are endless, timeless Spirit wrapped in flesh to learn how to grow in love.
Side Note: My children teach me and reinforce this notion in me every day. I know without them and their endless unconditional joy and love the last few months would have been terribly different for me in terms of reasoning and readjustment. When Jesus was asked about the greatest commandment — the one we needed to follow. It was LOVE … love of self first and then of neighbor. We can accomplish ANYTHING … we can overcome ANYTHING when we remember and adhere to that commandment. We may think it takes ‘time’ — really only takes remembering to LOVE. Hard. Very Hard. And yet …. Love will grow. ‘Time’ always has human limits.
