Masterpiece

“Trying to find a moment with You
These days are speeding by
This ring gives me a new point of view
I’m a dealer of my time…”
(Bethany Dillon, Say Your Name)

Say Your Name by Beth Dillon. I can really relate to the song except for the ring part. Miss Dillon must have penned these lyrics during those busy days after her marriage with Shane Barnard (okay, so that makes her Mrs. Barnard) because the verse that comes right after says, “And if I can make a confession, my time is torn between the man who has won my affections and the God who made me.” Hrmmm. Go Beth!

But let me focus on the first verse and the part that says “these days are speeding by.” Indeed they are. I can’t believe it’s October already.

Last weekend I marched on a stage (with no power interruptions, yey!) to take my Masters certificate (okay, just a dummy one, I got the real one yesterday). Last (oops, last last) month I was in Johor Bahru with world changers hungry to transform nations. Last year I was walking around Kuala Lumpur looking for companies to act as respondents for my thesis. Last last year I almost got deported having had to stay “illegally” in Malaysia because of long lost passport procedures. And the year before that – okay stop me before I take that walk again down granny memory lane.

My point is that time flies. Days hurry by, turning into months, turning into years… and years… and then more years.

Sometimes we are eager to let time zoom by. Like when we’re anticipating a certain date or event and we’d wish that that day would come oh so quickly. Or like when we’re moving towards a particular dream or aspiration and we’d rather get over the mundanity of today more speedily.  Or like when we’re going through a particular process and we’d yearn to reach its end point in a less excruciating, more fastforward pace.

But sometimes we’d rather freeze the seconds and let the moments and the days drag on. Like when we know we’ve only got a few months, weeks, days, or hours left with visiting – or relocating – friends and family members.  Or like when we’re having the best day ever and we don’t want the joy and the laughter to come to an end. Or like when we’re cramming for our exams and we realize that we’ve still got three quarters of a dozen books left to pore over.

And sometimes we’re torn between wanting both. We’re stuck in the dilemma of wanting to let time fly by and wanting it to stop dead still.

But we can never control time. Manage it, yes, but control it, no. The seconds tick, tick, tick as they do ever regularly and unswervingly.

So what then could we do? What then should we do?

In 2005, I wrote the following paragraphs:

“This, perhaps, may be the reason why the importance of seizing the day has suddenly become so real to me. Each day holds an important lesson no matter how mundane a day may be. And if a boring day still holds a lesson, what more the exciting and activity packed day? If we forget or neglect to seize the day – if we let it pass without getting anything from it – then we lose out on so many nuggets of wisdom and lessons in life. 

“How do we seize the day? Living every moment (as opposed to JUST existing in every moment) is a start and grabbing the valuable lessons follows. Yet our memories can not retain every event, every lesson, and every emotion from each day so seizing the day may also include CAPTURING the moment forever – not just in our  memories but perhaps in a drawing, a painting, a poem, a song, or a piece like this. That way we can go back to the memory if our brains forget to retain it.

“Seize the day… seize the day… may the importance of seizing the day also be real to you – never let a single day pass without experiencing the fullness of that day.”

I’m surprised at the mixture of wisdom and childlikeness contained in that 17-year-old’s melancholic musing.

I have to go back to that and make every day beautiful, every day the masterpiece that it is.

Carpe diem. : )