Tasting My Own Medicine

i started writing this article last year at school but never really completed till recently. i believe this with all my heart but have done a very poor job at following my own advice. someday i hope to achive true contenment and disciplin. God is constantly working on me and im glad that he'll never give up. what would any of us do without him? im so glad i dont have to know wat that is like. i hope u enjoy and if u dont agree i would like to be enlightened. May the Lord bless you and keep you in your coming years.

The Mage

The Value of Time

A person’s life is defined not by the large things that happen but by the miniscule choices that one makes every day. One thing that plays a large part in our decision making is time. People say that “stopping to smell the roses” is a waste of time, or that they don’t have time for this or that. They say, “Life is short, get done what you can.” Life is only short because we make it so. We don’t have time for the important things, only the urgent ones. The things that need doing now are what hold our attention. There are 86,400 seconds in every day and usually all 86,400 of them are stolen by unimportant urgency. We need to ask ourselves “What matters more?” We need to strictly sort out our priorities. People at the end of their lives say things like “If only I hadn’t chosen to…I wouldn’t be here.” or “If only that one person that one time hadn’t made that one decision, I would be a completely different person.” These decisions are dictated predominantly by time. The only truly unforgiving thing in this world is time. You can’t go back once you’ve gone forward. Every moment is someone’s first, and every moment is someone’s last. Life goes on from beginning to end. What will you do with your time? Choose what you will do with your time in a manner that you won’t be ashamed of when you reach eternity. I saw a t-shirt the other day that said, “Live your life so the pastor doesn’t have to lie at your funeral.” I know you have heard it a million and one times but don’t put off for tomorrow what you could get done today. This proverbial phrase has been lightly thrown around for years, but how can it be diligently applied? I cannot tell you that for I too struggle horribly with this issue. I have found that the American culture is a slave to the tyranny of time. Almost every new invention that comes out is to make things easier and to fit them in to your “busy schedule” because you don’t have time to do it the other way. A few examples of these inventions are as follows: microwave ovens, Campbell’s soup to go, anything portable, fast food, e-mail replaces letters and cell phones replace home phones. I’m not saying these are bad things just making my point of how dependant Americans have become of things that are quick and easy so it doesn’t slow down their busy lifestyle. One of my favorite things to say when I’m joking around with my friends about how life is too hectic is, “Stop the world I wanna get off!” I imagine the world spinning around at a super high speed and me jumping off into outer space where everything is calm and peacefully slow. Unfortunately though, we can not just jump off the world when life gets crazy, but we can make an effort to slow it down by prioritizing our priorities (my apologies for the redundancy). I hope this strikes a cord and that we can all, myself included, slowly begin to convert from unimportant urgency to non-urgent importance. I have one last question to leave with you. Why spend your life attaining your American dream and building your career only to find at the end of your life that you have passed things by and wasted all your strength and energy on working?

Finished

What can I say it’s done, and even though there r many more things I could talk about or explain I think that would ruin the mystery. Your childhood is what defines who you will become. I like this piece a lot because it helps me remember all the things that made me who I am. I didn’t want to describe the garden, only what it saw because I want people to read it and remember what their own childhood homes were like and what experiences they remember. Maybe some of their memories were similar to mine. Hope u enjoy this little look into my past. luv ya all lots.

The Mage

My Childhood Garden

My childhood garden was a dear sweet friend. So many memories I shared with that little piece of earth. Sadness and joy, tears with both. So many things I long to find again in that peaceful little place. I see a child who found a lost treasure. A small gold coin buried, only to be uncovered by a miniature hand. On another day the garden served as the final resting place for a young puppy. His tiny heart was too weak to go on. This day brought a great sadness over all who looked upon the girl weeping for the little dear. Still other days life went on, the raking of leaves in late fall, the covering of snow in early spring. A pet turtle burrowed in that ivy searching for a breakfast of worms. Long slender fingers worked alongside little chubby hands pulling weeds and planting flowers. Days came and went, turning into years. The aspen in front of the door was cut down and new grass was laid to rest. The garden stayed the same as twice the house was painted and the luscious grass was torn up by rowdy youngsters playing football. The garden witnessed the little girl hurrying down the driveway with a packed bag. It watched the same little girl come running home when she got hungry and cold. The garden caught the streamers as the girl said bon voyage to her tenth year. She cheered aloud as her mother cried inwardly for time to slow down. But alas it trudged on. The garden watched the girl in her young years, comforting her in sad times and rejoicing with her in glad ones. It cradled her as she prayed after a dognapping and it caught the tears when her friend was returned. It gave itself up to her little experiments and let her dig for more buried treasure. Bike jumping competitions and street hockey were a favorite of the neighborhood children and when a mysterious man gave them all candy the garden watched them run and tell mommy. In the winter mommy would take her and her brothers outside to collect snow for snow ice cream and give them one carrot and two chocolate chips for the face of their snowman. In the spring she would hand them bags to pick up the crab apples that had fallen on the ground. In summer the garden was showered with sprinklers and little pattering feet, squeals of delight filled the air as cold water touched warm bodies. Fall brought the leaves and children to rake them into piles and jump in them. So many things happened there, and the little girl finally had to leave her childhood home. Moving away from that little garden where so many memories were made was hard but she got through it. Even though she left the garden, God did not leave her. He nurtured and cared for her until now, that girl is me looking back to her. How young and innocent she was and still is in many ways. I love her but I know she is gone from me. Perhaps though she will be seen again in future generations with a garden of her own to watch her live and love, to change and be. Maybe, just maybe her charming smile will once more fall onto a beloved plot of land shining upon and nurturing the beautiful inhabitance. So much can be said but so small a space in which to write. Memories, a million or more, flood over me and take me back to my childhood garden.