“How did it get so late so soon?” -Dr. Seuss
If we listen closely we can pick up the faint crunch of footsteps in the gravel. Winding their way up the walkway. Closing the gap with each step. Gradually gaining momentum. Knowing if we peel back the front-room drapes we will be able to catch a glimpse… “Father-Time” looming as he casts his ominous shadow upon our door. Reaching out to knock. What was once “all the time in the world” has transformed to an urgent tick-tock tapping at the back door of our thoughts.
Tick-tock. Tick-tock. Counting down the days and minutes till we usher in a new year, while wistfully letting go of the worn-out year that lays strewn behind us. Carefully wrapping up the joys, sorrows, regrets, and accomplishments of the year gone by for safe storage…or, until those days that we feel like rummaging through our reminiscence chest.
The seemingly never ending days of our reckless youth are now cherished lingeringly as the speed and velocity of time push us forward. Being older always seemed so far away. And yet, one day you look up and things have changed. You are no longer attending the recitals and awards of your relatives children…now those children up there are yours. Finding yourself sitting in the crowd awed and astonished at how quickly it all changed. How different it has all become.
Sometimes it seems like a blink of an eye. Like time slipped through your fingers. Funny to look back on all of the dreams of what you were going to do…how you were going to take the world by storm. Seemed like you had all of the time in the world…
And now you find yourself stretching your neck trying to peer back and find where all of that time went. Taking stock of all the things you were going to do. So much time…now seems so fleeting.
Nowadays it is difficult to plan a day ahead, let alone a week, a month, or a year. A moment of solitude has to be scheduled a week in advance…and most times is squeezed out under the surplus of mounting activities. Busy has set up shop. It has slowly wormed its way to the forefront of our lives. Most assuredly edging out any visions of grandeur and taking the world by storm. Anyways, it can be quite difficult to take ourselves seriously as radical agents of change and crashers at the gates of the status quo when we arrive in a minivan and safety seats.
The creep has settled in…often spend more time looking back than looking forward. Finding it easier to reminisce than to strategize and plan.
And yet, we will most likely approach this new year the same as many others, with a few half-hearted resolutions and goals that sound good…but lack any conviction or real spirit. Most of which will be lucky to make it out of the first month unscathed and/or even discarded.
Which gives impetus to why this year has to be different…needs to be different. Needs to be more. Much more. A year that doesn’t wait for tomorrow.
Today…
The day we step into the unknown. We step out into the abyss. We loose that grip on the safe and stretch ourselves beyond. Today we determine to take on something that is bigger than what we imagined we could do…but, deep down knew we always wanted to do. To accomplish. Today is the day we determine to take it on.
Today is the day that we decide “why not me”? Minivan or no minivan, knowing that I am and can be that change agent. The one willing to crash the gates of status quo. No longer waiting on others to be that change…accepting the challenge to be that change in the world we want to see. The change you always wanted to be.
And if not you, who?
Let’s not waste another day. Determine that one thing deep down that you want to accomplish, to do, to be, to overcome. Take hold of it. Embrace it. One piece at a time. Be the one. Be the change.
Let this new year ring with remembrance…of the beginning of a new end.
“Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today. Let us begin.” -Mother Teresa
Special Thanks to Skillet and their song “One Day Too Late” that gave inspiration for this post.
DCulberhouse 