As I write this, on our national Remembrance Day, I am thinking of the old adage, “Time and tide waits for no one”. It seems no time at all since I last wrote an entry on this page, probably because so much has happened, and the time has just flown!
We have eleven grandchildren and I’m not long home after attending the wedding of the first of them to be married. It was a really lovely wedding, in a Brisbane bushland setting on a beautiful afternoon with just immediate family and a small group of friends. It was a poignant time for me, attending without my wife, and thinking about our own wedding, well over half a century ago, in another era. I couldn’t help remembering our promises to each other made on that day, and the incredible highs and lows of our lives together since then!
A few days before I set off for our grand-daughter’s wedding, one of Dorothy’s legs was badly swollen and the care home doctor required an ultrasound examination to establish if it was caused by a blood clot. Fortunately, it was diagnosed as cellulitis, a local bacterial skin infection which is being treated successfully with oral antibiotics, and so I was able to travel interstate to the wedding knowing Dorothy’s leg was being cared for.
Back home now, here in Melbourne, I needed to pay attention to maintaining my own health and I have been attending a weekly exercise session. That routine is about to be changed to a twice-weekly regime to follow the “GLA:D ® Good Life” osteoarthritis program, developed by researchers in Denmark. That, plus visiting Dorothy and all the other minutiae of my everyday life, will keep me moving!
Today, I was again reminded of our mortality when I attended a memorial service at my local church to celebrate the life of our dear friend, Peter; his life as a devoted Christian has been an exemplar of how lives can be transformed by living out and demonstrating our Christian faith and serving others. Vale Peter.
Then, as I visited Dorothy later today, I became even more aware of how time passes. I rather like to think of it as time ‘spent’ but, unlike money, we can neither bank it nor spend it more than once! I see that we all have choices about how we spend time. Our lives are really ‘once upon a time’, every moment is precious and there’s no repeats. As I get older, making choices of how, where, and with whom I spend my time has become even more important! Yes, my journey continues, sometimes in uncharted places, but one thing is certain: time passes…..….I must learn to grab it, and use it wisely!