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Time of Our Lives

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It was a fabulous adventure, a mystery-dinner event that we play-acted last night after just a few rehearsals, and my role was the doctor – checking on everyone and how they were feeling – with a few mysteries of my own which got revealed “in time”… And we all worked together as the family team we are, even if we had just met. I love meeting people and we share a cause – I love working the people who know that we are in this life together and we can do great things – even if it is simply showing up for someone else.

Such a hilarious time – less stress and certainly many hands make LIGHT work – and wow the director writer concept everything young woman has a great bright future ahead of her – everyone loves someone who knows how to run the ship. We got into ship shape and sailed into the program with just a few rehearsals… whew…

Both in practice and then for the actual event, we cracked each other up with our ad-libs, staying in character, which was the treat for us too – to be witty. The audience suspected MANY people, and a marvelous time was had by all. And yummy food, and blessed after party for decompression, I loved seeing the maid still costumed doing karaoke… her kids were tired, but she could have rolled on hours and hours more… Another mom there had rode the train up to the big city and then back in the same day – time well spent and managed – and then got to this big event. Time rolls like a train – steadily at times – stopping at times – and isn’t that the most interesting thing about time, it often rolls on when we are not noticing. It is hard for us to imagine how long we live without noticing we have lived it, and then wow it is 50 years later.

Time – I carried the old fashioned timepiece as a fashion accessory, a chain with watchface, it was 1960s or 1970s not 1800’s, but I found it quite suitable for the scene of the doctor checking for a pulse. I held it and it was snapped into my vest, a gorgeous quilted maroon fabric I got at the thrift store. The whole ensemble came together in 10 minutes and well that was time well spent. And well the people of the time – the gentleman of that time – had to have precise time pieces and synchronized their watches on chains often.

This watchpiece necklace however was my grandmother’s – my dad’s mom – from the 1970’s. I can remember my dad giving it to my grandma because the watch she wore on her wrist was one that would wind by you moving your arm normally and my grandma was in a nursing home and she was very very sedentary, having lost a leg to “the sugar” as they called it in those days. My grandma never complained and kept as busy as she could in craft projects and watching TV, which I also remember the day my dad brought her a great big TV she could have at her bedside – wow. I remember so much of those 10 years of me visiting her in the nursing home – every other day – my dad found time (or tried to) every day to visit her if only a short time – and my dad was busy – but how important to visit – it was not a text message or phone call, but a check-in – and also his random timeslots he thought would keep the nurses on their toes too – helping them know that he might be in to see her – and hopefully that gave her better care. I remember my family saying it simply could not care for her at home and for 2 small children at the same time and both working too. We can never be in two or more different places at the same time. I do remember so much time was spent for me in childhood – time then seemed so slow and now it flies. I know that I had a blessed childhood full of love and that is priceless. I pray every child gets a memory database full of cherished times.

Time does fly – it is a memory now – 50 years ago – and it is a recurring fresh thought that the time we spend with people is SO important – family who are friends and friends who are family – and even random people to whom we can make a difference… Honestly it is the time of our lives that we can be semi-stewards of – as we get to choose what we do in leisure time – which is much more these days than our parents had or our grandparents or before them… Let us use our time wisely.

And there are times we can not take – just not enough time in the day – so true. And there are times (not often for me) where time stands still – but I have seen it – and more often when you are trying to fit MUCH into a moment, well it seems there is time for it! Especially when I am in a situation where I think I have synchronized my clock with God’s. Remember it isn’t the other way around. God’s Time is His Own – we barely live within the sweeping hand of time – hold onto life while we can.

“But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.” – 2 Peter 3:8

I can not even imagine what time feels like to God – I know that we need sleep and wow I was so tired I could have slept on the dining room table last night at the after party while the maid-dressed spitfire of a lady was dancing and singing karoke… I was ready for my crash. And I can not even imagine that God never tires – never rests – is all- knowing – that alone should make us realize that His Ways are above our ways. We are human people being human and God is perfect. Of all the time we have – may we be praising the Lord for the time He gives us – and praise Him in all circumstances good and bad.

“Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom.” – Isaiah 40:28

So – I could spend all of time writing how amazing the Lord is and how we should make the most of our time – but really – WE SHOULD MAKE THE MOST OF OUR TIME. And we (I certainly do) thank the Lord that He makes us stop and rest too – resting restores our minds, our muscles, our movement – to get up and do it (living each day) again…

And so I put this beautiful watch away – actually hang it to the wall where I notice it on occasion and remember the memories – remember the shortness of life – remember to keep moving. I try not to watch the clock but sometimes I do… I don’t wear a watch (I use my phone) – and this past year has been a whole other type of time management – but I do remember that TIME IS A GIFT…

And the time we have is well worth living within God’s Time – He is beginning and end – we are given precious moments for Him for sure.

Let us LIVE the Time of our lives, because WE CAN.

AMEN

AMEN – and thank You Lord for the rest so I can be onto my next great adventure today…

“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.” – Revelation 1:8

Keep Warm – with LOVE

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I am not snowed in yet because it has not yet started to snow – but it is cold and I do plan to warm up today with a trip to a beautiful greenhouse conservatory around here – just the right warm up that I will appreciate…  Continuing my reading of my distant relative’s memoirs after WW2, when he was a forced laborer – it is tough to read their plight – it was COLD – and they were not taken care of more than slightly elevated slave labor – and yet my relative as a skilled worker was as careful as he could be – one to keep his head down but chin up in survival mode – he did escape after the Dresden bombings – went south on foot and by train/trams occasionally – made it home. He got help from friends, family and strangers.

But the story from the factory? and the people? wow!!! And being in survival mode is different for everyone – but in remembering how we make it though – we are to remember that others are travelling with us…  King Solomon in his Ecclesiastes poetry tells us that we are better together – and even best with God there too – that is the third in the threefold cord between friends.

The Value of a Friend – verses 9-12 Two are better than one, Because they have a good reward for their labor. For if they fall, one will lift up his companion. But woe to him who is alone when he falls, For he has no one to help him up. Again, if two lie down together, they will keep warm; But how can one be warm alone? Though one may be overpowered by another, two can withstand him. And a threefold cord is not quickly broken.

Let us stay warm today and bring warmth to others – bring the strength of the Lord into your situation too. Selfish toil will bring us nothing – as King Solomon states – but “vanity” and “grasping for the wind“… Even striving for popularity is also is vanity and grasping for the wind.

And so it is better to share what we have with a friend – and LOVE each other. 

Let us use COLD temperatures to remember to bring the warmth ourselves to invigorate us to keep moving and keep loving.

Amen

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And remembering his “friends”, my relative in the labor camp learned of their fates after the war. May we continue to remember others…

Here are some snippets: 

“Back to the factory… The factory produced vices from the smallest to the largest and mainly dividing devices for various uses. I worked on a lathe, a circular grinder and I was also on the transport – a two-wheeled cart for transporting material from workshop to workshop.

“How it was there… Monday to Friday we worked 10 – 11 hours a day, on Saturday until 2 pm. Twenty of us lived and slept in one room in the camp. Our food was cooked from one pot, without meat, very poor. The pay for the work was very low. Bread was sent to us from home.

“…apart from me, there was “Mr. N.” , the oldest in the camp, he was almost fifty years old, then “K”, a house painter, a tanner “T”, who didn’t stay there long, injured his hand and couldn’t work and probably bought himself out of there – lard, meat for the Germans and was released. “M” – over forty years old, could sing songs beautifully, was blind in one eye, in his youth he used to go to the priest for pears. He was unlucky, after an air raid he found a suitcase full of fine women’s underwear on the street – he took it and, as a typical Ausländer [foreigner], was accused of looting, imprisoned and only in May did he reach home completely exhausted and died. “D” was also imprisoned – for Christmas he wanted to meet his wife at the border, he violated some regulation and was imprisoned in Litvínov, where there were already chemical plants at that time. There they tormented him with cold, etc., he returned after two months alive, but completely exhausted.”

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Here is the wisdom and start reality realization from King Solomon:

Ecclesiastes 4 – New King James Version
The Uselessness of Selfish Toil
Then I returned and considered all the oppression that is done under the sun:

And look! The tears of the oppressed,
But they have no comforter—
On the side of their oppressors there is power,
But they have no comforter.
Therefore I praised the dead who were already dead,
More than the living who are still alive.
Yet, better than both is he who has never existed,
Who has not seen the evil work that is done under the sun.

The Vanity of Selfish Toil
Again, I saw that for all toil and every skillful work a man is envied by his neighbor. This also is vanity and grasping for the wind. 

The fool folds his hands
And consumes his own flesh.
Better a handful with quietness
Than both hands full, together with toil and grasping for the wind.

Then I returned, and I saw vanity under the sun:

There is one alone, without companion:
He has neither son nor brother.
Yet there is no end to all his labors,
Nor is his eye satisfied with riches.
But he never asks,
“For whom do I toil and deprive myself of good?”
This also is vanity and a grave misfortune.

The Value of a Friend
Two are better than one,
Because they have a good reward for their labor.
For if they fall, one will lift up his companion.
But woe to him who is alone when he falls,
For he has no one to help him up.
Again, if two lie down together, they will keep warm;
But how can one be warm alone?
Though one may be overpowered by another, two can withstand him.
And a threefold cord is not quickly broken.

Popularity Passes Away
Better a poor and wise youth
Than an old and foolish king who will be admonished no more.
For he comes out of prison to be king,
Although he was born poor in his kingdom.
I saw all the living who walk under the sun;
They were with the second youth who stands in his place.
There was no end of all the people over whom he was made king;
Yet those who come afterward will not rejoice in him.
Surely this also is vanity and grasping for the wind.