Time

"Time keeps on slippin', slippin', slippin' into the future." Or does it?

In Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis explains time as a human illusion. There is no time in God's world, he sees all events at once... OK, wait, my brain is starting to hurt. C.S. Lewis is so smart and is an an artist at rhetoric. I'm sure he's right and what we know as time will be but one of the earthly things to evaporate during transformation; but for now I'll continue to appreciate time as a reality.

Babies - so sweet, so new, so fresh - everything before them. Holding a resting infant closely can bring inner peace and release tension, even heart ache.

Children, so funny as they they learn to walk and talk and develop a personality. From toddlers to pre-school to Kindergarten and elementary school, there are scholarly volumes dedicated to each stage of life. Isn't this all taking place in time?

Middle School and High School, the children transition into adults, becoming more independent and often self-absorbed. 18 years-old, you're an adult!  21 years-old, you can vote! This is a decade of being an adult on paper but in many ways, many people are still kids.

My daughters are both in their 30's now. This is the decade when a person arrives officially in adulthood. No doubt about it, in my opinion anyway.

40's, not quite over-the-hill but youth is slipping away.  Time to have a mid-life crisis? Some do, others relish the age they are. The possibilities and adventures still lurk around every corner.

A 50th birthday party.  Really?  Half a century old?  Is my life half over?  Can I live to 100? Introspection, a depth of spirit, wisdom, perspective... old things are new, life is still exciting.

I'm 60, how did this happen?  Where did the time go?  The end is closer than the beginning. This is a time to become comfortable with being old. Old is not bad, young is not good, they are just different stages of being; or are they two stages taking place simultaneously? Maybe I'll understand that on down the road.

From here I cannot speak from experience, but I see 70-something people working, being active, making a contribution, enjoying life. I don't know what's in their lives but it must be something good.

People begin to die of old age. Some are ready for death, they greet death as a friend. It is the natural culmination of life. It's not the end, it's a beginning.

I highly recommend Mere Chrstianity for clarity on a life lived in preparation for eternity and an understanding of how time might be a figment of our imaginations. No one can say it like Jack.  (AKA: C.S. Lewis)