Appreciating Time

There are many views on the passage of time, on how we should appreciate it, on how we don't. But to learn the real relevance and importance of time, you have to dismiss it and not treasure it. Each moment given to us is a gift, by god or nature or whatever you want to call it I don't know, but each moment is a gift. And only when that gift has been taken for granted and used beyond it's potential and broken, only then do we truly appreciate it's brilliance.

Time is such a gift. The wisest of people can learn this once and live with it's knowledge the rest of their days. But for some people it takes repetition, for some more then others. I pity those people who don't learn the first time, the people who have to live through the pain several times with no understanding. I am no great sage, no wise man, but I have at least begun to understand the relevance of time. I learned not to take each moment for granted when happy moments of childhood were whisked away from me and I was left with faint memories.

But with this knowledge comes a weight, a great weight that rests upon the shoulders and brow of every person it inhabits. The weight of uncertainty. With the knowledge to relish every second is the knowledge that those could be the last seconds. That everyday people die, and not all of old age. There are accidents and problems that can't possibly be forseen. There's the nagging in the back of your head that tells you that this may be the last time you see someone, that this maybe the last time they see you.

And so the gift of appreciating time is a double-edged sword, like so many other wonderful gifts. There are no straight answers, and so when you see someone off to the hospital, when you see them drive off in a car, there's always the question at the back of your mind, will I see you again? But you just shove it away, ignoring it as insensible nonsense, but the more we think the more questions we ask and the more uncertain we become, every time we say goodbye.