{"id":573,"date":"2024-01-07T21:03:00","date_gmt":"2024-01-07T21:03:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/christinaryanclaypool.com\/blog1\/?p=573"},"modified":"2024-01-08T01:33:58","modified_gmt":"2024-01-08T01:33:58","slug":"the-truth-about-the-concept-of-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/christinaryanclaypool.com\/blog1\/2024\/01\/07\/the-truth-about-the-concept-of-time\/","title":{"rendered":"The Truth about Time"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\u201cTo everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven.\u201d Many of us have heard this famous Bible verse turned Byrds\u2019 lyrics, but have you ever considered how it applies to daily life? Personally, I\u2019ve been rather stuck on thinking about the intangible concept of time for quite awhile. My quest began on an unplanned Florida vacation over a decade ago.<\/p>\n

To explain, I was supposed to join my late mother and two sisters on a cruise ship headed for the Caribbean to celebrate my sister\u2019s 50th<\/sup> birthday. Instead, birthday girl had a frightening health crisis in the Washington airport and was rushed to the hospital.<\/p>\n

This left me stranded in the airport in Ft. Lauderdale, not wanting to board the ship without news of her status. Inwardly panicking about what to do next, my brother who is a Florida realtor heard about my plight. Don called me in the airport with a gracious invitation to stay with him in Naples just a couple hours away. Thankfully, I later received word that my sister would be fine, too.<\/p>\n

Despite the fact that it was the busy season for selling real estate and I was an unplanned-for guest, Don made me feel incredibly welcome. One night after supper, my brother even offered to take me to the beach near sunset. It was there that we met an elderly woman who gave me a lesson about time. Her tanned face was so leathery and wrinkled from the Florida sun, that it was difficult to tell her age. Probably mid-eighties, yet there was a kind of vitality about this silver-haired senior that made you think she was younger. She was a widow who had enjoyed the Floridian lifestyle in retirement, but she shared that she would be reluctantly returning to the Midwest soon.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s time,\u201d she said simply. \u201cI have a daughter and her family up north.\u201d My compassionate sibling shook his head knowingly, and with understanding in his voice softly echoed her words back in acknowledgement. \u201cIt\u2019s time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Time for what, I wondered, while guessing that this was a final life stage. As soon as the woman disappeared, I sat on a bench pensively staring out at the vast blue-green Gulf of Mexico picking up seashells sensing that something sacred had just happened. Finally, I asked Don, \u201cWhat did she mean, \u2018It\u2019s time?\u2019\u201d\"\"<\/p>\n

He explained that often there comes a season when it\u2019s no longer wise for retired Florida transplants to live alone. When health, security, and planning-ahead requires them to move to an area where they will be surrounded by family who can care for them in case of a crisis. Usually this means moving back home. These practical seniors are planning for their final days, but that doesn\u2019t mean that the joy of living and being fulfilled stops.<\/p>\n

After all, the Bible also tells us about, \u201cA time to be born, and a time to die.\u201d Yet there is that metaphorical dash that exists between these two stages. Each day we are given needs to be cherished, because inevitably a moment comes for all of us when the sand in the hourglass runs out.<\/p>\n

Long ago, my late grandmother shared her impression that as one ages, \u201cTime flies.\u201d\u00a0 I recall thinking her theory seemed unscientific and random. But through the years, I have discovered Grandma\u2019s opinion is all too true. To explain, time is moving way too rapidly as I now find myself growing older at what seems to be the speed of light.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Lately, I occasionally discover myself desperately wanting to beat Father Time and hold fast to the valuable moments of today. But in the end, there is no way to buy more time. Instead, we have to make the most of each precious day we are given, living it as though it were our last.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"Christina Ryan Claypool is a freelance journalist and inspirational speaker. Contact her through her Website at www.christinaryanclaypool.com. <\/a>\u00a0Her inspirational book “Secrets of the Pastor’s Wife: A Novel”<\/a> is available on all major online outlets.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cTo everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven.\u201d Many of us have heard this famous Bible verse turned Byrds\u2019 lyrics, but have you ever considered how it applies to daily life? Personally, I\u2019ve been … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1816,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[260,256,29,257,262,261,258,259,255],"class_list":["post-573","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-a-spiritual-path-on-the-road-less-traveled","tag-aging","tag-beach","tag-bible","tag-florida","tag-midwest","tag-real-estate","tag-retirement","tag-seniors","tag-time"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christinaryanclaypool.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/christinaryanclaypool.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/christinaryanclaypool.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christinaryanclaypool.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christinaryanclaypool.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=573"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/christinaryanclaypool.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1914,"href":"https:\/\/christinaryanclaypool.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573\/revisions\/1914"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christinaryanclaypool.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1816"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christinaryanclaypool.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christinaryanclaypool.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christinaryanclaypool.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}