Remembering 9/11 on the YBR. 15 years later.

Life is a song – sing it.
Life is a game – play it.
Life is a challenge – meet it.
Life is a dream – realize it.
Life is a sacrifice – offer it.
Life is love – enjoy it.

Sai Baba

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A matter of time on the YBR. Making the most of it.

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L. Frank Baum really never told his readers how many days Dorothy spent in Oz. In fact, time as we know it, stood still in Oz.  Unlike the White Rabbit in Lewis Carroll’s “Alice” story who was always running late or J. M. Barrie’s Peter Pan who wanted to stop time so no one would ever grow up, Dorothy was not limited to or hindered by time. (When The Wizard asked her to bring him the broom of the Wicked Witch, he didn’t give her a deadline.)

Locked in time

The last moment in time was on the Big Ben’s clock

I was reminded of time in my Marist class the other day when one of the student’s asked me what was my best time.  It was a good question in a class built around the importance of asking questions. I didn’t have much “time” to think about an answer, but my head was flooded with images of past events. And while I was tempted to say one of my best “times” was my year as a student at Oxford, I found myself saying that the present was my best time. And I meant it even though it wasn’t the kind of answer the average college student is looking for.

College students are all about time.  They crave it and want to be washed in “good times.”  They look at the future and want to hurry it up.  Their impatience is understandable because when you are young you are always looking forward.  When you are “older” it doesn’t mean you don’t “look forward,” because you do.  Many seasoned individuals, on the other hand, tend to look back at “good times.”  And while there’s nothing inherently wrong with that, it can be dangerous though when the past is where you live.

Living in the moment often gets an undeserved bad rap.  That doesn’t mean I encourage selfish and careless living where you abandon any sense of responsibility for your actions. What we do in the moment does come with consequences.

However, the present is really all we have.  And while there is always room in the present to prepare yourself for the future, I think we miss something if all we do is think about the future.

There is no arguing that I have far more yesterdays in my life than I have tomorrows.  But I have the present and it is up to me to squeeze as much juice out of each moment in the present that I can.

I am very fortunate to be in the presence of young, eager minds.  And if there is one message I would hope to give them it would be this: There’s nothing you can do about yesterday. What happened is in the books. Believe in tomorrow, but don’t take up residency there before tomorrow happens. If you do, today will slip through your fingers. Make the most of today by living in it and celebrating it. Carpe diem!

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