Speaking of time

In 2000 a lady I barely knew challenged me to write something so she could see if I had talent. She said "You can write about how pigs fly, I don't care." The following is the result of that challenge. After reading it the lady said, "if I were a teacher I would give you an A+." The piece was included in my first published effort in 2001 Spirit With a Positive Attitude.

The Most Precious Gift

If you are alive and breathing, whoever you are, whatever your origin, sex or age there is a gift you share with everyone, whether you want to or not. This gift is invisible, has no scent, makes no noise and can't be touched or tasted. It is the most precious gift you have and without it you would cease to be. We all have an equal amount no matter where we live, how much money we make, whether we are dependent or independent. Neither a high I.Q. nor an important job grants anyone anymore of this gift than anyone else.  It can't be loaned, bought or stolen from another.

We all have 1,440 minutes of time in each day we spend on this planet. How we choose to use these minutes is an individual decision. We are not born with a road map or a list of rules. Good or bad, the choice is up to us, nobody can make it for us.

It is interesting how people with titles sometimes assume their time is more valuable than those without. Adults often think think their time is more important than their children's time, simply because they are adults and therefore deserve more attention. Nationality, tradition and training has taught some men that their time is much more valuable than women's time. If the world ended right now none of us would have time left to worry about it.

Every moment of every day we all have the opportunity to help others by sharing a part of ourselves with everyone we come in contact with. If we realized time could run out right now maybe we would find time to be kinder to each other, to smile more, say thank you, share a thought or help another. Wouldn't it be wonderful to spend every moment celebrating that we have it instead of worrying and fretting about things we don't have and probably don't need anyway?

How we decide to use are allotted time is far more important than who our parents were or how many material things we feel we need to be happy. We can choose to be negative, bitter and hateful or positive, grateful and loving; taking all opportunities to help others help themselves.

(Perhaps the lady was right in the assessment of my writing talent as it led to two hard cover books, two newspaper columns, two Amazon E-books and the blog you are reading. Who knew? I sure didn't!)