Everyone says they know this, but too few people truly feel the intense urgency of time.  I do.  I strive to step up the pace with serenity.  My goals are increased knowledge, understanding, and Love.  There are so many important things on which to focus.  Let’s not get bogged down with our daily chores.  Consider transforming them into opportunities.  I seek to live in a state of grace,  where I pray through the ironing and folding of laundry, smelling the freshness of the clothing and being grateful.  I like to pray for each person as I fold their clothes.  And, yes, I do pray for myself when I fold my own things.  It really sets my mind to the right dial.  I no longer resent my son for not turning his pant legs back when he hurriedly throws them into the basket inside out.  It gives me a few more seconds to pray for him.  It forces me to slow down and think on what really matters!

We are studying Poetry in depth this year.  One of our favorite Poets has been Robert Frost.  How clever he was in his writings.  And yet, there was a quiet sadness, sometimes even a dark raging in his works.  Upon further study, we found out that his daughter died in childbirth at age 29, and his son committed suicide when he was 38 years old.  Tragedy makes one’s writings deeper, it would seem, and better somehow.

“You’re searching, Joe, for things that don’t exist;

I mean beginnings.

End and beginnings~

there are no such things.

There are only middles.”

–Robert Frost

I talk about leaving this earth frequently with my family.  I want all of us to be ready.  I want us to live in a state of grace, so that we will be without regret on the day that death knocks.  I tell my family to be ready to die tomorrow.  Live so that you will be unashamed.  This is good advice, once you get over the morbid focus on death.  Death is simply a part of life.  I suppose it is more real to me, since I have witnessed many departures from this life as a nurse.  My son tells me it’s why I always cry at certain sad songs, and during movies.  My experience is deeper, wider, and closer to death than the average person.  And that is OK.

Do you feel the urgency of Time as strongly as I do?