Nothing gold can stay.

--Robert Frost

Yesterday afternoon, the weather was perfect for riding a motorcycle, so that's what I spent some time doing.  As I headed down Stanley Avenue, I thought I'd swing by Andalusia Memorial Cemetery...crazy, I know, but sometimes I go there and talk to my dad.  Yes, I know he's not really there.  No, I don't care.  Anyway, when I got there, I found this.  

I was quite stunned to find that my dad's foot marker was pretty much grown over....quite stunned.  Before I go any further, let me saw I am in NO WAY about to bash whoever keeps up the cemetery.  Not at all!!  There are lots of markers out there!!  And I am also in NO WAY writing this out of self-pity or sadness or woe-is-me.  But the fact of the matter is that the condition in which I found my dad's marker was a perfect reminder....a reminder that LIFE IS FLEETING.  

My brother, who is a lot smarter than me--we're talking exponentially!--says the reason it seems like time passes faster as we age is that the older we get, the smaller percentage a portion of time becomes relative to how much time we've lived.  Sounds like some physics equation to me, but I know this:  it's midterm week at LBW and we just started the semester yesterday!  It's also homecoming week in Andalusia and the class of 1999 is having their 20th reunion....and they were seniors the first year I was the assistant band director at AHS.  That was just last year, right???  

As I rode off from the cemetery, I passed headstones of people I grew up knowing and I thought about my own existence.  (Doesn't everyone do this on Sunday afternoons??) I drove across Stanley and wound up on South Cotton Street, and then found myself on Carlton Street.  My best friend growing up, Kevin Harp, grew up in the house at 623 Carlton.  Lord, we rode bikes all over Andalusia.  Now the bike has a motor on it!  My mind was all over the place. Middle school.  Band.  Trying to pass chemistry.  Middle school crushes...mmm, she was pretty.  LOL.  Then, I thought about the friend I've known the longest--Mark Craig.  I drove past his parents' house on Snowden Drive.  605, I believe.  Mark's daddy died recently.  Too soon.  I remember him playing basketball with us in Mark's front yard.  If you played against Vernell Craig, you had better brought your "A" game!  You influenced me greatly, sir.  

The longer I rode, the more I thought about how fleeting is, and how I hate to see it wasted.  We can make more money.  We can make more people.  We can make more houses.  We can make more clothes.  We can make more cars.  We can make more everything....EXCEPT TIME.  

As I said earlier, this post isn't intended to be depressing.  Quite the opposite.  You and I have an opportunity!  A gift!!   It's called TODAY!!!  And until out time's up, we get a new TODAY every day.  Use it! Call a friend.  Cook.  Practice your instrument.  Study.  Plant a tree.  Read a book.  Do that task at work that you've/I've been putting off.  Watch the sunset.  Look at the stars.  Or just rest.  But use your time wisely...for it is going to pass no matter what you do.  

Have a good day.  Do something with it.