Lost Time Is Never Found Again
Time is something I never have enough of. Today’s them for the Picture-Of-The-Day is something you don’t have much of. The most obvious is money. Unless you are part of the 1% in the world that is the most wealthy, most of us don’t have much money. I was going to take a picture of money, but again, I don’t have much. Luck is another think I don’t have much of, but that is hard to take a picture of. Most of my life, I have never had enough time, so I took a picture of 4 of the many clocks in our house. I have lots of clocks, but not enough time.
Today would have been my Dad’s 81st birthday, if he had not passed away. Thinking about today’s Picture-Of-The-Day’s theme and my Dad, the lack of time kept popping into my thoughts. I do miss him. Good old Ben Franklin said “Lost time is never found again.” That is more true today than back in Ben’s day I think. I never seem to have enough time to do what I want. I use as much time as I can, but there has been plenty of lost time over the years that I will never get back. When I think of my Dad today, I think of the lost time that we did not have together. Except the first 10 years of my life living on the farm, we did not have that much time together. Time that was lost because of either his or my work schedules. After the farm, my parents owned a restaurant and bar. Plenty of late nights and many 6 & 7 day weeks working.
Thinking back, I cannot remember a period of time more than a few hours that my Dad and I got to spend just together after the farm. And on the farm, it was just a few hours working together or Dad showing me farm chores. Growing up I worked the bar and restaurant with my parents, but I am thinking about just the two of us. If my Dad found time to go flying with me, I ended up taking both my parents to the Playboy club or Lake Lawn for lunch. Neither he or I fished or hunted, so there was no bonding time out in the woods or sitting in a boat out in a lake. My first race that I attended was with friends and customers of my parents. When I soled my first aircraft, he could not be there. It is not that we did not spend time together, we took family vacations, but that was with the family. My Dad went from working full, then part-time to the nursing home, no real retirement. He never got to see one of my art shows or spent time out taking photographs together. That is lost time.
When my parents sold the restaurant and bar, before they took on another line of work, they had some time free. Then I was busy trying to get a business started or was working many hours myself. Again more lost time. Time I wish I had back now. Tonight during dinner or after I will raise a glass of wine and toast my Dad’s birthday. I know if he was with me he would raise a glass of beer to me and most likely he will because he will always be with me. I do miss him and more, I miss the lost time we never got to spend together.
If you are still reading my ramblings in this posting, I hope you take away something; Lost time is never found again. If your parents are still with you, spend some time with them and not together, more one-on-one. Even if it is just an afternoon out taking pictures, having lunch or just a road trip. Once they are gone, that is time you will not get back. If you have children, make that effort to spend some time one-on-one with them too. Take them out in the woods, share your interests with them, and spend time with them. Find the time before it is lost.
This is Day 19 of the 30 day challenge and the subject is “Something you don’t have much of.”. You can see all the scheduled image subjects at:
http://365project.org/discuss/themes-competitions/2116/i-found-this-challenge-thing
See my entire Project 365 Album at: http://365project.org/markbuehl/365
See my Art Website at: http://www.markbuehl.com
See all my Picture-Of-The-Day images in a calendar format at: http://shuttercal.com/calendar
Mark Buehl's Blog 