Time flies when you’re having fun!
A watched pot never boils.
Everything takes longer than you think it will.
We have all of these quaint little sayings about time. Really time is nothing more than incremental measurements of our existence. It’s unrelenting as symbolized by the ticking of the clock. We say it marches on. It’s like the drummer that sets the rhythm for the band. Everything else must follow or it will be out of sync.
It certainly seems to fly by when we are busy. We wonder where it went when we gaze at our elderly parents, our grown children, and the grandchildren who refresh our joy and zest for life. But it can also seem to drag.
Here in my Kansas City hotel room across the street from KU Med Center, I am thinking about time. Hanging out with my elderly parents, one in the hospital and the other just barely able to get around causes one to be reflective.
Our time here has been more than doubled from our original expectations. Dad’s aortic valve replacement went fine, but he is going to need a pacemaker, which won’t happen until Tuesday. Anyway, I am about five days down with five more to go here in KC. Then I will have to spend a little time in St. Joe.
So, I have been thinking about how important it is to walk that fine line between focus and flexibility. Without focus, we are just floating though life, reacting as things happen to us. We will probably miss out our deepest reason for being here. Without flexibility, we will always be agitated because most things don’t go according to plan and they usually take much longer than anticipated.
So, I listen to a lot of Dad’s stories and help Mom get back and forth to the hospital. Delays, elderly people, hospitals, and hotels are part of the detour from my plans. Somehow, I think I will look back on this time as being very important and be very thankful that I shared it with my parents as “time marches on.”
