MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2023 - THE REST OF THE YEAR AND TIME

 MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2023 - THE REST OF THE YEAR AND TIME

Let’s plan out the rest of the year.

Three months from today is Christma, and a week later is New Year’s 2024. So, how will we end the year on a high note?

Along the way, we have October with Oktoberfest and Halloween; Veterans Day; Friendsgiving and Thanksgiving in November; and in December there are Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. If you are working, you’ll miss at least two days (and probably three - two days at Thanksgiving and at least one - most likely two days at Christmas.) 

If you teach (college), you might lose an entire week at Thanksgiving and have final tests ending on December 15.  

If you teach ElHi, you will lose a few days at Thanksgiving and at least five days at Christmas. (Plus, Halloween will not be a day off, but your students might be climbing the walls for a couple of days.

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So, what is on your agenda?

From your first-of-the-year goals, are you keeping up? Is your budget okay (especially with gift-giving season ahead)? 

How about your health? Are you still a few pounds over what you want to be? You’ve got two months until Thanksgiving - get some extra workouts going.

How about your social life? Are you like me - coming out of your summer hibernation? (I didn’t want to leave my air-conditioned cocoon in August.

Are you mentally challenged? (Doing a crossword puzzle or a word game or two).

And, related to that - are you mentally at peace? (“Peace of Mind”)

Are you spiritually awake? (or did that go into summer hibernation, too?)

Are you allocating enough time for the tasks before you?

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Finishing the year in a good way.  

I have friends who have deadlines ahead of them. One is making a sales pitch this coming week for her services; another has to raise investment funds for her cargo ship by October 1. 

In the past,  I tried to finish a few days ahead of a deadline to go back and review my work.  

During college, I knew students who crammed the night before a test. I never did that. I planned my review for final examinations at Thanksgiving time.  

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Aesop wrote a fable - The Ants and the Grasshopper.

One bright day in late autumn, a family of Ants was bustling about in the warm sunshine, drying out the grain they had stored up during the summer, when a starving Grasshopper, his fiddle under his arm, came up and humbly begged for a bite to eat.

“What!” cried the Ants in surprise, “haven’t you stored anything away for the winter? What in the world were you doing all last summer?”

“I didn’t have time to store any food,” whined the Grasshopper; “I was so busy making music that before I knew it, the summer was gone.”

The Ants shrugged their shoulders in disgust.

“Making music, were you?” they cried. “Very well; now dance!” And they turned their backs on the Grasshopper and continued their work.

Aesop’s moral was, “There’s a time for work and a time for play.

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Some quotes about time:

The two most powerful warriors are patience and time - Leo Tolstoy.

Time is money. – Benjamin Franklin.

Time waits for no one. – Folklore.

 It’s better to be three hours too soon than a minute too late. – William Shakespeare.

Lost time is never found again. – Benjamin Franklin.

The key is not in spending time but in investing it. – Stephen R. Covey.

Time is free, but it’s priceless. You can’t own it, but you can use it. You can’t keep it, but you can spend it. Once you’ve lost it, you can never get it back. Harvey Mackay

The trouble is, you think you have time. Jack Kornfield

Time is a cruel thief to rob us of our former selves. We lose as much to life as we do to death. Elizabeth Forsythe Hailey

Suspect each moment, for it is a thief, tiptoeing away with more than it brings. John Updike

Time brings all things to pass. Aeschylus

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So, as we start our final three months of the year, are we planning ahead? Are we allocating time wisely? 

Ephesians 5:16 “Make the most of every opportunity “

LOVE WINS - WHEN WE TAKE THE TIME TO FULLY AND UNCONDITIONALLY LOVE

LOVE TRANSFORMS - BUT TRANSFORMATIONS CAN TAKE TIME

I CAN ONLY LOVE GOD AS MUCH AS THE PERSON I LOVE THE LEAST

KAREN ANNE WHITE, © SEPTEMBER 25, 2023