Sunday April 18, 2010; 8:00 pm
Time.
Time is measured in its smallest unit as seconds. Then comes minutes, hours, days, weeks……. We all pretty much know this. Something else we are all intimately familiar with is that time cannot be stopped. No matter what we might try, time moves on with or without us. To borrow a very over-used statement, time is what it is, and we cannot change it.
One of my favorite, if not my very favorite singer/songwriters is James Taylor. He wrote and recorded some great songs back in my high school and college days. One of his songs begins with the line “The Secret of Life is enjoying the passage of time”….. Never has there been a truer statement. Have you ever wondered why it is that we get so caught up in the everyday details of what we do? Yes, yes, I know that we must pay attention to details when we are at work. I know that we must pay attention to details when we are driving. When we are preparing our dinner, we really need to pay attention to what we are doing, or we might add a tablespoon of salt when what we wanted was a tablespoon of sugar. Trust me you don’t want to make that mistake. But what I am talking about is that we sometimes allow our self to become so engrossed in the details of what we are doing that we fail to really see what it is that we are doing. You know, the “can’t see the forest for the tress” syndrome.
Today I did something so simple. I had lunch with my daughter. So many times in the past we have enjoyed a meal together just her and me. Sometimes it has been something I would make, and other times, as today, a nice meal in a restaurant. No, she’s not a ‘little girl’ anymore. But at the same time, she remains my little girl. She’s 18 years old now. But we drove together up to one of our favorite restaurants in the entire world. Yes, really, in the entire world. We drove up to McCaysville, Georgia; or maybe it is Copperhill, Tennessee, but we went up there. It’s about an hour and fifteen minute drive from Canton where she lives.
We talked about dogs. We talked about boyfriends. We talked about Mom and Dad. We talked about Grandma and Grandpa, Granny and Papa. We talked about things that have absolutely no relevance at all. We just talked. We laughed some. I don’t think we cried any, but there may have been a moment or two that both of us fought back some tears, and most definitely, there were a couple of moments that voices became shaky and words did not come out so easy. But we just talked.
She had her ‘Tropical Chicken’, and I had my ‘Enchiladas Especial’. We ate too many chips and salsa. We thoroughly enjoyed our self. And then when we left, we each blamed the other for making us eat all that food. Yeah, it was all real good. We had lunch at our favorite Mexican Restaurant, El Rio. And yes, we really did drive all the way up to McCaysville to do it. Now, could we have enjoyed some good Mexican food somewhere closer to Canton? Most definitely. Could we have enjoyed Mexican food as good as that somewhere closer to Canton? Probably not, at least not in our opinion, El Rio is simply the best. You have to ask yourself this though, did we intend to have lunch up there in order to spend the extra time together driving, talking, and enjoying each others’ company? Actually, no we didn’t. We wanted El Rio. So that’s where we went. But here is the thing.
We made the TIME to do what we wanted. We didn’t settle for less than what we wanted because I needed to do this, or she needed to do that. We just did what we wanted, and a very good side affect of doing that was the time it took to do it. When I left her house, I wondered to myself how many times in the past I had been guilty of running to Applebee’s or Dos Margaritas because they are so close and after all, we could save all that time by going there versus somewhere else that we both really liked. I don’t know the answer to that question, but sadly, I am certain that I have done it.
But today anyway, we did what we wanted. I got to spend about 4 hours with my little girl, and it was good. I left my apartment in Atlanta at 10 this morning. I got back at about 5 this afternoon. Could I have better used that time in some other way? Actually, I don’t think that is even remotely possible. It was time well spent in the best possible manner.
The secret of life is enjoying the passage of time………………….
Time.
