Time

This will probably be my last post until after Christmas. I will be heading to central Illinois on Monday and will not have access to a computer until I return. I am struck by the simplicity of my statement. I'll throw some clothes in a bag, jump in the car and drive the almost 400 miles home. That's it, clothes, car, drive and in a few hours I'm there. How different travel is now. The speed at which we travel is so much faster. I'll be driving 65 miles per hour at times yet Thoreau marveled at 30 miles per hour. My wife's mom and aunt were visiting this past week and we were joking about walking home. We calculated it would take 18 days walking 20 miles a day to get back. I'm not sure I could walk 20 miles much less 20 a day for 18 days! I remember seeing a sign once that stated everywhere is within walking distance if we had the time. But who has the time?

Before my dad was born, BC that's Before Carl, his mom and dad and two oldest siblings decided to go on a trip to visit family out in the country. Neither family had a phone in their homes so they had to communicate and coordinate through written word. That's right, letters, you know snail mail! A letter was sent, "Hay why don't you come out and visit?" Another letter sent back, "Sure when would be a good time?" Back and forth the letters would go, train schedules consulted, until all the plans were made. Today the planning would take five minutes on the cell phone while we were rushing to the mall or something. Back then it probably took a couple of weeks for the letters to be carried back and forth in the mail. The day finally arrives. The family walks to the rail station, bags in hand. They had a station in most towns back then. At that time most people still didn't own cars. In fact my dad's parents never owned one. So there they are at the station. They board the train. Ride till they got to the nearest town to the family they were visiting. There to meet them was a horse drown wagon waiting at the station at the appointed time. Loading up their baggage they were propelled down the road at a one or two horse power pace over the finial miles. Back then the trip would take all day. Now it would take an hour to drive. Why, no time at all.

Time. We have become time travelers. We communicate instantly all over the world. We travel faster than sound. Even when we are driving at a puny 65 miles per hour we are warping past our world. When we see an Amish family plodding along in their horse buggy we think of them only as a curiosity. What must they think of us rushing around so. Never taking time, always trying to make time, but never saving time.

Can you see the moon? Marching across the sky cycling through ever changing phases every 28 days the moon is a time piece we ignore. Heavenly time revels our place in the universe. Yet in many places we cannot see the stars. We squander our time by chasing time itself. Slow down! Stop! Be still! Watch time by the fall of a leaf, the colors of the seasons, the flight of Geese. Mark time with each breath. Count time with each beat of your heart.

Hold time until that day,
when all of time fades away.
"In the beginning" started it then,
with an "Amen" it will end.