Well, it did it to me again! It seems like I just had my birthday in June; now it’s a new year, and it’s only six months ’til my next birthday. That would make me X years old! The thing about this New Year’s thing that everyone tends to celebrate is it forces us to look back at the past and then into the future. From where I am sitting in the present, my past is a lot more past than there is a future.
Each year that passes, a little more of my early childhood slips away from my memory. My days were spent at Grandma DeJardo’s house, sneaking the little cokes in the glass bottles and some of her German chocolate cake. I recently had to buy a six-pack of those small glass Coke bottles just like the ones I got from Grandma De-Jardo’s house. If you have never had Coke in a glass bottle, you are truly missing out on a taste experience. It doesn’t taste like an aluminum can. For some reason, it doesn't have that full flavor, even in a plastic bottle. My German chocolate cake tastes nothing like hers, either. But everything tastes better at grandma’s house. I’ve mentioned these very same things in past articles. The same goes for Grandma Jones and her freshly baked bread and timing it right to come into her house at the exact moment it comes out of the oven, and she slathers butter on that delicious slice.
It would take a book to recount the adventures I embarked on from childhood to adulthood. Each adventure took me closer to that dreaded time we consider ourselves grown.
Time has a way of slipping by. Life has that funnel effect: as it swirls closer to the bottom, it gets faster and faster, and the years slip by without a how-do-you-do.
Fast forward to dating, marriage, cars, jobs, and grandchildren; each has its own story. Unfortunately, many of those stories will go untold even to direct descendants. Everyone should jot down what their memories hold. Yes, it may take a while, but what else are you gonna do with them? Join a writers club and get busy writing. It doesn’t have to be perfect. Give your future selves something to laugh, cry, and dream about.
Singer/songwriter Paul Simon wrote a song titled Slip Sliding Away. “Slip sliding away, slip sliding away. You know the nearer your destination, the more you’re slip sliding away. God only knows; God makes his plan. The information’s unavailable to the mortal man. We work our jobs, collect our pay. Believe we’re gliding down the highway when, in fact, we’re slip sliding away.”
Romans 13:11 - “And do this, understanding the present time: The hour has already come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than we first believed."
