the wheels keep turning and life moves on. time passes whether you want it to or not. there’s no pause button and there are no time-outs. it doesn’t matter if you’re living well or poorly, if you’re struggling or things are fine, the sun rises and sets regardless.

adults told us when we were young that time passes quickly. they told us that life goes by faster than you’d think. i wish i’d paid more attention – it turns out they were right. looking back, it seems to me that my first four decades passed in a finger snap. the summer holidays that seemed to last forever when i was young now take only an instant to pass by.

when we’re young, we grow accustomed to the slow passage of time. it seems like we have more than enough. i thought i had lots of time to address the things i wanted to but i got older faster than i planned. even after i started to realize how quickly life was moving, i put the important stuff off. i promised myself i’d get to it later.

we all do it. we tell ourselves that we’ll do what we need to, just not right now. we’ll get to it soon, although “soon” is rarely defined. eventually, you wake to the fact that “later” has come and gone and you’re not any closer to where you wanted to be.

“i’ll change tomorrow. i’ll start next week. i’ll do it this afternoon.” procrastination is the name of the game. your plans for age twenty-five become your plans for age thirty, and then for age forty.

life isn’t waiting for us to decide if we want to engage. it’s got stuff to do. time will pass regardless of our desires, wishes, and hopes. life cares nothing for us or our needs. we have to accept that and adapt.

there’s truth to the saying, “life is what happens while you’re making other plans”.

it’s time to wake up. it’s past time to get in the game. you’ll miss it otherwise. your dreams will turn to ashes and your plans will come for naught. you’ll never realize your secret hopes if you keep putting them off until tomorrow, or until it feels right, or until you “get your ducks in a row”. there is only ever now.

life won’t make things convenient. life doesn’t care about easy. life won’t remind you that you have things you want to get done before last call. that’s not how it rolls.

we are finite and the wheel is in motion. it’s time to get going.

(april 17, 2018)