Change Your Stars!
Defining Moments
  
Home   |   Today's Star!   |   Archive of Stars!   |   Up Close and Personal   |   Defining Moments
Subscribe   |   Quak Trax   |   History   |   Links   |   About   |   Contact   |   Guest Book
The Quest!   |   The Star Thrower
We do not remember days ... we remember moments.
Cesare Pavese
Time and the Things of Greatest Worth
Lloyd Newell

How we choose to spend our time says a lot about us. It's true that sometimes we don't have any say over how our minutes, hours, and days are spent. No one really chooses to wait in long grocery lines, catch the flu, or get stuck in traffic. But what we do with the time we have reflects our commitments, interests, and values.

A beloved hymn reminds us:

Time flies on wings of lightning;
We cannot call it back.
It comes, then passes forward
Along its onward track.

But suppose you were allowed to "call back" a day or even an hour and relive that small portion of your life. What would you do differently? Would you spend more time with children? with grandparents? with neighbors and friends? Would you take the opportunity to apologize? to forgive? or simply to listen?

When we think back on our lives, most of us don't wish we had watched more television or held more grudges. In the same way, possessions, power, and prestige are all but forgotten when life comes to an end. But things of the heart endure and even grow sweeter with time's passage. Opportunities to help, to love, to learn, and to cultivate relationships are among life's greatest gifts. Since we all have some life left to live, let's pause to consider whether we're spending our time on things that matter the most.

Then should we not endeavor
Each day some point to gain,
That we may here be useful
And ev'ry wrong disdain?

Defining Moments Archives

Copyright © 2006, Jace Carlton.  All International Rights Reserved.

Copyright © 2005-2013, Jace Carlton.  All International Rights Reserved.