“Like sands through the hourglass, so are the days of our lives.” And they’re slipping by super fast.
In a few days July will be here. The month in which every day feels like a Saturday. For the last few years I’ve been fortunate to spend July – all of it – at my folks’ home on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. When it comes to summer, there’s no better place to be.
Summer is about eating soft ice cream, walking barefoot, catching fireflies, drawing on the driveway with chalk, running through sprinklers, wiping sand from between your toes, holding a freshly washed child on your lap while food cooks on the bar-b-q, reading on a hammock, listening to crickets, wearing a comfy sweatshirt on a rainy day, putting together a jigsaw puzzle, and much more. Summer is where memories are made.
I begin to look forward to my time on the Cape pretty much the August before. I have a countdown, as do most people before a vacation, and the closer it gets, the more the excitement grows. Sometimes, the pre-vacation time is almost better. Arriving on the Cape with a seemingly endless run of summer days ahead full of possibilities and projects, once it begins, the end comes too quickly. I’m not sure if it’s because I’m getting older, but time in general feels like it’s going by more rapidly.
I once heard a story about an older man who likened Saturdays to marbles. In his mid-fifties he calculated he had about 1,000 Saturdays left in his life, assuming he lived to 75. He went out and bought 1,000 marbles and put them in a jar. Then as every Saturday went by he would throw one away. In no time that huge jar was empty. From that experience he said, “I found that by watching the marbles diminish, I focused more on the really important things in life. There is nothing like watching your time here on this earth run out to help get your priorities straight.”
Which brings me back to July.
While I have 31 days of “Saturdays” stretched out before me (which will also include work and deadlines, but at a summery pace), there’s no reason you can’t add a little “Saturday” time to any day. Our lives are filled with millions of moments, but how many do we remember? Try taking advantage this July by making a few new memories that won’t slip quickly through your fingers.
Comments