It’s Time

It’s time. I kept hearing that in the back of my mind. It’s time. It’s time for what? Oh, I know! What’s coming up? Football! No, that’s not what it’s time about. Oh yeah, the dreaded event. The Humorous speech contest. That’s not funny.

It’s time to become proactive. Proactive for what? Getting ready for a contest? It’s time to go see a movie. What is it time for? I got thinking, why do I keep getting this feeling it’s time? I got thinking, and then I got stuck. I got lost in my thoughts.

Then it started nagging at me again. It’s time. It’s time. I found out, at that moment, I looked at my watch. “Oh! Yes! It’s time! To go get the kids.” No! I was a little bit late, but no, that wasn’t the real reason. I kept getting this, “It’s time.” I looked at a calendar, I’m going, “You know, it’s 120 plus days till the end of the year. What have I done this year?”

I caught some great movies. I took my eldest son to school. That, in itself was very interesting.. We took three other boys with him. It was fun. There were five cars, and we got to see almost every parking lot there at OSU.

It’s time. It’s time to maybe start letting go of my oldest son. I can’t always be there to protect him. Can I? I remember the day he was born; he could not wait to get into the world; he came into the world like a cannon ball over a month early he was skinny but he was long. I stayed with him; they took him to the nursery I went with him. He was my first. He was small we had to get the preemie clothes for him [more like doll clothes] He grew he was always on the move we lived in a second floor apartment I was coming back from walking the dog; here he comes down the stairs with his ball cap on and his diaper always on the go. I remember the first day I took him to school kindergarten he really didn’t want to go we had to drag him a little, but he made some new friends and off he went.

It’s time August 11 I get up early we get the van going and he gets in his car we go to another parents house they are the staging area for the 4 boys to load the caravan we have 2 vans 2 cars and a truck.  The van at the parents’ house was loaded and ready to go; problem the battery was flat and did not even wanted to be jumped so we unload the van and divide it out amongst other vehicles.

Did you know that when you have all these boys moving into a dorm, and they only have four elevators, it is a very long wait for a sixteen-floor building? I’m feeling young. I’m only not-quite-50 yet. I can do the stairs! (a few times).  Now the wife and I have been going on long walks just about every night and I told my wife, “I did my walking for today, tomorrow, the next day, and two weeks from now.” Because I kept going up these stairs.

Maybe I need to schedule a few more road trips to OSU. Make surprise visits. I found out his class schedule and go, Hmmmm I’m off on Wednesday his first class isn’t till 9:30. If I get up there real early, I can wake him up. Would I be able to get in the dorm? That’s not important now.         We can’t pound on doors, can we? Yeah we can. Sometimes it works, sometimes they don’t open. It’s also time to open new doors.

Think about a time when you’re wanting to accomplish something. Are you along that process? Where are you in that process of … where you want to go?  Are you there yet? Have you even made that first step? Are you still in that planning stage?

I love setting goals. I get lost in that, “If I do this, do that, do this, do that, do that,” it’ll happen. Problem is, I forget to do the one crucial thing. That first step. Then, sometimes, you get so excited about something, “I can do this, I can do this,” you’re making a giant leap. Guess what? You miss that cliff that was right there.

You get yourself up, dust yourself off. “What did I get myself into?” Then you start going, “Okay, what can I do better? What lessons did I learn from this?” If you never ask yourself what lessons you’ve learned from an event. History has this nasty little habit. It likes to repeat itself. If you didn’t learn from the lesson, you’re going to repeat it.

Speaking of lessons learned in time, I ask my son the other day, “Which is the better way to learn? Is it better to learn from other people’s mistakes or from your own?” “From my own.” “You mean you’d rather do everyone else’s mistakes and not learn from them?” It’s time to keep track of your mistakes, make a list of your lessons learned, and learn from it, and grow from it, and make yourself a better person. It’s time to do that now.