Life Passes in a Flash

Image Source: Flickr/Flowercarole

It's unbelievable how quickly time passes under our noses.

I remember being 7 years old and waiting all morning for my birthday party to start.  My mother gave me chores to do to get the house ready, and it seemed like it took years for the clock to strike noon. Now, years fly by in a flash, hardly noticed.

9 years ago, almost to the day, I left for college, with truckloads of dreams and a wide eyed ambitions. Life was so big, so long, so hopeful.  It felt like the time in life when things really begin, things happen, life really starts.

What's even crazier is that it's been five years since I graduated.  In my mind, I still feel wide-eyed and full of wonder, but what I am frightened of, is how quickly that is fading.

I swore that I would never be a hardened old lady, too set in her ways to see all of the marvelous wonders in life.  I wanted the wisdom of an adult and the faith of a child.  Fear creeps in and we try so hard to hold onto something that isn't even ours.

With last week's death of Robin Williams, it has caused all of us, who grew up being entertained by him, to think about the heavy topic of mortality.

There is a scene in one of Robin's films, The Dead Poet's society, where he has his students crowd around a trophy case and picture of students who had gone before.  He tells them to look really hard at the image of the men men in their prime, then he tells them that all of those men are now fertilizing daffodils.

It doesn't matter your worldly accomplishments, because in 30,50,80, years, you will be fertilizing daffodils.  What life ought you to live?

An Unfinished Life

Leonard Knight, the creator of Salvation Mountain, passed away yesterday.  He spent decades building up an acrylic mountain of Bible verses and art that has been featured in several films, magazines, and on
album covers.

In 2009, on a trip to track down locations to the film Into The Wild, I received a personal tour of the mountain by Leonard himself.  For about a half hour he toured my brother and I around his masterpiece.  He's got a 50 by 150 foot mountain, several painted vehicles, a telephone pole grotto, and cave-like museum.  He told us of his vision to expand the mountain, pointing to a half finished boat and an unpainted area with raw dirt showing.  He had so many dreams, so many things he wanted to still accomplish.  He wanted more people to hear the message of his mountain, that God is Love.

For the past several years Leonard has been in a nursing home with ailing health.  It makes me wonder how much he left unaccomplished.   We have such a finite time on this earth.  I bothers me that I waste even a day of it.

Everyday I hear the words, When_______________, I do ___________________.  I know an 85 year old who's been saying When I win the lottery I'll buy a corvette for years.  She is now unable to drive, but she still holds onto it.  The irony, is she is wealthy enough to just go by a corvette on any day she'd like.

I have come to the conclusion that we rarely hit our mark because we are scared to.  Maybe it is the idea of the thing that we want, not the thing itself.