It's Later Than You Think.
July 29th, 2009
My friend Kathy was recently laid off from a consuming job to which she’d given her heart. She asked if we could hook up for lunch or something, and I suggested the “or something” option of kayaking at sunset to the deserted paradise of Caladesi Island, which is only a few miles from where we live.
She told me about a close friend who is battling cancer who told Kathy, “It’s later than you think.”
It is a profound message: Time is precious and finite. Don’t waste it, no matter how chaotic life seems.
Sometimes I think that the enormous change in our reality is really some kind of a corporate restructuring from above. The slate has been wiped clean in a way that forces us all to look at who we are and how we live. So many people have encountered adversity and stopped living. They are so afraid of tomorrow that they have given up on today.
You are not getting this time back. It’s later than you think.
We hung out on the island and I saw a storm forming back on shore. It looked menacing, and there were a couple of lightning strikes in the direction we were headed. But, the storm went away. We never felt a single drop. While the worry was there for us, we kept living in the moment we had. I told Kathy to close her eyes and feel the summer breeze on her skin. It felt so good. It was such a great lesson about what we all are dealing with right now.
While everybody argues and frets and scrambles and runs, we still have the time and opportunity to enjoy so much. This is a moment when we can experience strengthening connections with each other and our spirituality. None of that costs money, but it is priceless.
Don’t waste the moment.
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