Wednesday’s Words of Wisdom
Posted on December 3, 2025 under Wednesday’s Words of Wisdom with no comments yet
Time flies… wherever you live
“Time, flowing like a river,
Time, beckoning me
Who knows when
We shall meet again, if ever
But time keeps flowing
Like a river to the sea.”
Time – The Alan Parsons Project
With the humblest of apologies to Alan Parsons and his project, time is not flowing gently like a river. It’s rushing, roiling and churning like an angry bull as it hurtles towards the sea.
Wait a minute.
The last time I checked, there were still 60 seconds in a minute, 60 minutes in an hour and 24 hours in a day. Let’s stretch this out a bit.
“Five hundred twenty-five thousand, six hundred minutes,
Five hundred twenty-five thousand moments so dear,
Five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes,
How do you measure, measure a year?”
Seasons of Love – Rent (The Musical)
Don’t bother running for your calculator or in the case of many of my senior friends, limping for your abacus. The number is accurate.
At school recently, I was hanging around the office waiting for the day to get started. There were teachers, office staff and administrators bustling about getting ready for the onslaught. We varied widely in age. A common topic was how fast time seems to be moving. I can understand married couples with full-time jobs and young children. The pace of life is breathtaking. Of course, if your children happen to be good at sports, then your life is one long road trip.
I hated to break it to all assembled but if they think time moves at warp speed now, just wait until you’re a senior citizen.
“If I could save time in a bottle,
The first thing that I’d like to do,
Is to save every day
“Til eternity passes away”
Time in a Bottle – Jim Croce
I’ve tried to analyze this phenomenon of the passage of time and have come up mostly empty. I think electronic devices have something to do with this as they seem to control most aspects of people’s lives from the number of steps we take, our heart rate (while at work or while we’re sleeping) and the gob smacking amount of information (much of it questionable) that we ingest. Make no mistake, “Big Brother” is watching us.
“Time is on my side, yes it is,
Time is on my side, yes it is.”
Time is on My Side – The Rolling Stones
Wrong, Mick. If you’re in your 70s like me, time is not on my side. It’s slipping away. I’ve told this story many times and it is immortalized in my 5th book, “Eat, Sleep and Walk: Stories from the Camino”. I spent a day walking with a young woman from Australia. She had just completed a stint in the military and was trying to figure out what she was going to do next. I assured her that she had a long runway ahead of her whereas, my runway was much shorter. Without missing a beat she said, “Len. Take a smaller plane.” It is true that many of us are in the late innings of the game but there’s still plenty of runway. Sometimes, the game goes into extra innings
“Every year is getting shorter, never seem to find the time,
Plans that either come to naught, or half a page of scribbled lines.”
Time – Pink Floyd
The bottom line is that all of us should try our best to use the time that’s given to us. It is precious and better than all the gifts we might find under the Christmas tree.
Which reminds me. It is that time of the year, when I haul my 36-inch porcelain Christmas tree out of the closet and set it on my dining room table. Minimalist doesn’t even come close to describing my meagre acknowledgement of the festive season.
Life hurtles on. It’s relentless and there’s not a lot we can do to stop this speeding train.
In school, I often issue my students the “Five Minute Challenge”. It’s a chance in their busy day to stop, close their eyes and rest for a bit. A chance to reset.
I believe that this is a good practice for all of us to utilize.
As for myself, I prefer the “Thirty-Minute Power Snooze” on the days when I’m not teaching.
“If you can fill the unforgiving minute,
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the earth and everything that’s in it,
And- which is more- you’ll be a man, my son!”
If – Rudyard Kipling
Have a great day and use these 24 hours wisely.
They’re all you have.
