Reflections in the Hourglass

I recently heard of a celebrity’s passing and was shocked, not so much that he died but because for some reason I thought he had passed several years ago. Not sure how I got it wrong, but I hadn’t heard any mention of him this whole time until the news broke of his “actual” death. Several media outlets described it the same way: “he died unexpectedly.”

It’s always struck me as an odd term. I get it – when someone dies it’s usually a surprise at the time unless they were terminally ill. Even so, in such cases it’s never said that they passed “expectedly.”

It’s true though – we’re all expected to die.

As the iconic soap opera line goes….”Like sands through the hourglass, so are the Days of our Lives” (no idea which soap that came from). I’ve always appreciated the analogy, but one thing I hadn’t thought about until recently is how freakishly similar it is in comparison with the time-speed-age factor. Why is it that time seems to go faster the older we get? Yup – when the sand in the top of an hourglass starts running out, it picks up speed. Duuude!

If we could see the hourglass of our lives and knew how many days we had left, how would that affect how we spend our time? Would we worry less about comforts and material things (gasp) and concentrate more on our relationships? Would we be more inclined to mend fences with people we had a falling out with? Would we want to say our “I love you’s” more frequently to those that we love and appreciate?

Was that a rhetorical question?

If you’ve never read the book Tuesdays With Morrie, based on the true story of a dying man – just do it. An instant classic, I had been meaning to read it and saw it on my parent’s coffee table many years ago. It was my Dad’s, and when mentioning how I’d been wanting to read it, he said how great it was and offered to let me borrow it.

Dad passed about a year later.

I still have his book.

However much sand we have left…..may we use it wisely.