Lately, I've been thinking about numbers. Big numbers. Big numbers that relate to my life so far.
So far, I have lived through 64 years, 3,072 weeks, 21,504 days, 516,096 hours (well, OK, I was asleep during some of those), and 30,965,760 minutes. 30 million minutes? I've been adopted by seven dogs and four cats, lived in four states and six houses, and visited four foreign countries, including Canada. Counting could get depressing.
I remember talking to my grandmother one day, when she said "I'm 78 years old, and I don't know where the years have gone." She sounded wistful and sad. I was 27 at the time, a little uneasy about what she said, but not too much. My life went on; hers went on; and we never talked about it again. But her words stuck in my mind. Obviously, because here I am about to say, "I've lived 30 million minutes. Where did they go?"
Wherever they went, there have been lots of happy moments in all those years, hours, and minutes. Maybe more than I deserved, certainly more than I remember. I know that I don't have 64 years in front of me to pay better attention to the good things in my life. I'll just have to try harder so that, should I reach 78, I'll have a better idea where the time went.
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ReplyDeleteEven at 36 this sort of thing weighs on my mind. 36, single, and no kids... Not where I thought I'd be and I'm starting to wonder where the years have gone. And things just seem to go faster all the time. Not that I'm by any stretch of the imagination old, but I am becoming increasingly aware of the limitations that age can put on someone once they get past those youthful years that our society seems to respect and even revere so much.
ReplyDeleteYou think too much.....just enjoy!!! Be here now!!
ReplyDeleteWow 30 million minutes - you really are old! But, then again, no matter how I figure it (years, months, days, minutes or seconds), I'm still older! I guess that you can never change some things. Your calculations remind me of my dad who lived to be 97 years old. Once my nephew got old enough to do basic math in elementary school, they used to figure out his age in days. This progressed throughout my nephew's high school and college days. He was using a computer program that he had written in junior high so as to be precise in calculating the days to the "hundredths place". On each of my dad's birthdays, his grandson would provide him with the "current" number of days that he had lived - to two decimal places!
ReplyDeleteYour conclusion is right on target and similar to what many of us have decided - we need to pay close attention to each of our remaining days on this rock - and enjoy every second of our time after the first 30,000,000 seconds, or so. Carry on! Let's keep on counting as long as we can!