Time is Ticking
What is the most precious commodity in the entire universe? In this one man’s opinion: Time.
Some say time is infinite, but for us mere mortals, it most certainly is not. We only have so much of it in each of our lives, and unfortunately we do not know how much of it we have. So as we pass through time, we don’t always think about how much future time we might have to experience all that we want to, and we reflect on how fast the time that already passed has gone. Indeed, it seems that every year seems to go by faster than the one before, but we may fail to recognize the obvious implication of that - it is running out for us!
This is not intended to scare or depress, but rather to remind us that each moment is precious, and we must be grateful for the time that is remaining. In terms of our remaining time, it truly doesn’t matter how much of it we have squandered already; that is sunk cost. It happened already; it’s gone. Don’t worry too much about that. What we should be concerned with is what we are going to do going forward.
After I got sober, I began to reflect more about time. It occurred to me that when I started off as a young drinker, I had ‘forever’ in front of me. I didn’t think about how long I had. I lived it up, which isn’t all bad; in fact, it led to some amazing memories. But there is definitely a period in which I was wasteful with my time. I feel now like a big chunk of it just up and vanished. I’m not dwelling on that because, again, it is in the past. But now that I’m realizing I’m way past the probably half way point, I came to the conclusion that I want to make the most of the rest of my time.
So how do I do that? Do I get drunk all the time and live in a haze? Do I black out and wake up each day not remembering everything that happened the night before? Do I miss more important events? I don’t think so. Nah, not that again. I think this time I will be alert for all the special events that come my way. I’ll be in the moment. I’ll still live it up, but I’ll be sure to soak in all that life brings my way. I’ll be grateful and cherish it. After all, my time is finite, and I don’t know how much more I’ll have. But if I want to enjoy time that way, I had better be in control this time, not alcohol.
