Time's A-Wasting: Live Your Dream

Today, for Hump Day, I'm reflecting on recent events and on something that happened many years ago.

In the wake of wildfires, blizzards, senseless shootings, and other life tragedies, I think of a spring day many yeras ago when tornadoes cut a swath through the South.

My mother was afraid of storms and especially fearful when spring seemed to bring the worst of them. I remember trying to soothe her anxiety.

Later, I told my husband about this, and I quipped, "If it's your time to go, then there's not much you can do about it."

He said, "It may not be your time, but if you're hanging out with someone whose number is up then you're just screwed, and you'll go too."

For some reason, that whole incident really made me think. You never know when your number is up. I'm sure all those people killed in natural disasters and senseless violence thought they had plenty of time to do all the things they wanted to do.

Just like me, they probably had plans and dreams about what they wanted to do with their lives.  Maybe they talked about it, thought about it, dreamed about it, but hadn't yet done anything about it. They thought they had plenty of time.

I was like that. Big dreams. I talked about it, dreamed about it, but I hadn't really done much to turn a dream into reality. 

What if, without warning, my time was up? A storm could hit the 50 foot pine tree in my neighbor's yard. If it fell on my house, and I was in my house, I'd be a goner. Boom. Just like that.

That day, I decided I didn't want to be cowering in a hallway while a tornado roared overhead and thinking: "If only I'd had the courage to write."

TAKEAWAY TRUTH

American Journalist Sydney J. Harris once said: "Regret for the things we did can be tempered by time; it is regret for the things we did not do that is inconsolable."

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