What was that number again?

Eighty-six something, if I recall. That’s how many seconds in a day. You can work it out on your wristwatch or phone, or the myriad of diverse gadgets we adopt to make our time much easier. If you have the time.

What ever happened to the process of pen and paper and a mental exercise called multiplication? Gone from our life. Just like time.

It only takes a moment or a twinkling to accomplish what we wish to do. Eventually, though, we will never have those valuable things again. It seems we take these precious seconds for granted. Never quite finishing the words we wish we could do as we gawk at the device we don’t need. I suspect the very last thing I will say before closing my eyes to this gift of breath we all share is: ‘Gee, I wish I devoted more time to Facebook.’

Yet, here we are as a society discussing cybersecurity, addiction to social media, youth suicide, Instafamous, and how many twitter likes are relevant. During this age, our minds can still wander to the other eternal curse of time and thus life. Skyhooks, the great Aussie rock band, called it the horror movie right there on my TV. It’s the six thirty news. And right now, it’s shocking me right out of my brain. No wonder we appear anxious and annoyed with so much crisis going on, with never getting enough time to complete the tasks that form our lasting legacy.
Time.

Eighty-six thousand four hundred seconds every day. That’s what we each have equally, no more than anybody else. Yet why do some folks get more words done? Why are there high achievers within publishing with the exact same amount of time as us? Others seem to have all the time in the world, yet we have none.

Fact is, we can’t stand around the clock at midnight wishing for more time in the day, hoping for a small morsel. There is no grand old father time tossing out spares. That is foolishness and they will show up to take you away if they catch you racing around a clock searching for a scrap of time to help your day. There just isn’t more time… not a scrap.

My motto is: use each moment, each instant, each occasion with prudence; because, one day there will be less than usual in a day. Then we transition from working our scraps of time to being a memory during a rare moment for others.
Hang on, I must go, dear friend. I just received a tweet from a stranger and need to respond.

[454 words. Estimated reading time – 112 seconds. Can you risk it?]