Time

Time is such a strange concept.  I was just thinking about today for example.  Today is my 15 year anniversary of employment.  I was thinking 'Wow! 15 years' --> 'I was completely vested in my company's pension plan when I was only 33' --> '33 that was 5 years ago so much has happened here as a company in 5 years' --> 'all of the issues that have cropped up and resolved in that spans of time.'  --> 'Time.  Wow.  It's quite a concept.  I should blog about time.'

I think back to the times in life where I had the opportunity to grow or to change and at that time this 'thing' was so major, such a large part of my life but, now to look back on that time or that growth and in this light, it really wasn't much of a big of a deal...if I remember it at all!

I look at my Jacob, about to turn 6.  The time before his birthday is always a giant reflection for me.  I remember like it was yesterday, the excitement of getting our child, all of the preparations we were absorbed in, and our close relationship with our lawyer (that doesn't quite fit into a birthplan, does it?).  Trying to have everything finished in time.  We spent part of Thanksgiving with his biological family that year...and I think of what time has done to that relationship.  I think about Jaocb as a little tiny baby and how much he's grown and changed since then.  I remember reading book after book after book to him, and now he's reading to me.

I think about my parents.  My dad, 12 years gone now and my mom stuck in a time long since gone.  My sisters, my brother - I won't share their ages with you but, I do think ahead to the time when I'll be an orphan and/or an only child.  I want to enjoy the time I have with my family (I'm not saying that I don't now).  I'm saying, no matter the family, isn't there always room for improvement?

We've celebrated quite a few 'years', this year.  40, 38, 15, 10, 9, 6, 5, and only one (Jeremy, Me, a work milestone, years together, years married, Jacob's birthday, Gotcha Day, having Kelsey, and Kelsey's first birthday).  The time between our years seems to get shorter and shorter with more, and less 'firsts'.  It's hard to keep track of the things that are most important when there are so many things that I don't want to lose.

This is the beginning of a new day.
God has given me this day to use as I will.
I can waste it or use it for good.
What I do today is important, because
I am exchanging a day of my life for it.
When tomorrow comes,
this day will be gone forever,
leaving in its place something
that I have traded for it.
I want it to be gain, not loss;
good not evil; success not failure;
in order that I shall not regret
the price I paid for it.  ~Author Unknown