Spending Our Time

Tell me how you spend your time and I’ll tell you who you are. You won’t have to tell me anything else about you. And if you do say anything more, it will likely be an attempt to justify how you daily spend, invest, or fritter away the most valuable thing ever given to any of us. Time.

I’ve been babysitting my 18-month-old granddaughter, Lenna Kate Talley, since 7:30 yesterday morning. (When she awakes, I’m going to fix her current favorite breakfast - three scrambled eggs.)

Her parents are returning home from out of town around noon. I’m already counting the minutes. No, not because I’m eager to leave, but because I’m not. Tired as I may be, I cherish every moment with Lenna Kate. What little wisdom I may have attained over 64 years whispers to my soul how precious these times are.

My two other grandchildren, Allie and Aaron Rose, are in their early 20s and have full lives of their own now. They are two of the finest people I know in this world - even if they are my own grandchildren.

But no matter how much I may now try to spend time with them, they are both extremely busy with their own time these days. Many a grandparent who reads these words can relate, I’m sure. Such is the way of things, it seems. I was surely the same way with my grandparents when I was their age, though I would likely swear at the time I was not. I know I loved them dearly (as I know mine all love me, too) - but I was simply busy doing other things with my time at the time.

Again, such is the way of things. It takes time itself to teach us how important time is to us all. And by then we’re all much nearer the end of our time here on Earth. Such is the way of things.

It can seem to be one of life’s cruel turns; that we only truly learn to cherish and value our time as we begin to realize we’ve already used much of it.

But I prefer not to call such a realization cruel. I would call it a blessing, instead. Many are the souls who live out their entire lives on this sphere without ever learning to cherish and value life’s most precious gift. Time.