As we come close to the end of 2014, time is usually what a lot of people think about this time of year. Most of us look back at the past year, sometimes with regret I’m sure, but also we look back at all the good things that happened too. We also tend to look ahead to what the new year, 2015 will bring to us. Resolutions, plans, and goals all come to mind – many will be forgotten in the first few weeks of the new year sad to say.
I was watching an interview with Tiger Woods on TV last week when he said this statement about Father Time. It hit me on how right he is, so I quickly jotted it down as I don’t trust my memory anymore. He was speaking to coming back off one of his many surgeries and how it would affect his game. He is a year and a couple weeks away from turning 40 and he knows how Father Time has more baring on his career than ever before.
I could also see it in his eyes that he was talking about life and not just his career. It’s true for all of us, and I do mean each and every one of us. It’s amazing to look at our family and how Father Time has affected them. From our youngest nephew who many in our family still sees as being 4 years old, when in reality he’s 8. We look at our parents, with the oldest turning 78 this past year and all the age-related issues that are starting to settle in for them. Those age related issues aren’t just for them as I found out this year with my two surgeries dealing with the affects of arthritis on my knee and back.
That’s another thing that Father Time has given me. The time to sit and reflect a little more as I’m off work for awhile healing up from my back surgery in early November. It’s helped me to see many things more clearly and it’s given me the opportunity to make some adjustments with those reflections, and to make some changes for not only the year ahead, but for years and years ahead.
The looking back for us on Father Time can offer lessons to learn from and to make changes for today and the future. The looking ahead for us on Father Time can offer hope, dreams and goals to work hard for and go after. What I’ve seen from having some extra time to reflect and think these past few weeks (and for a few weeks more) Father Time offers us a great gift, every day that we can make changes and do the things necessary in our lives to make things happen for us, our family and our friends. Today allows us to take a blend of the past and tomorrow and do the best we can with what we have, and that is today, right now is all we have to work with.
So from reminders on the back end of our lives with our youngest nephew; to the reminder on the front end with our aging parents, it helps clarify what Father Time means to me and my wife along with others in our family from our own generation. It hopefully offers the chance for us to make any and all changes that we want to right now. For that is all we really have – the right now of our lives.
Tiger is right – Father Time is undefeated. Time always wins. How can we win within the time that we have?