With the end of October around the corner, another year is almost a wrap. With each passing year I marvel at the passing of time. This was reinforced to me this week by spending time with our oldest granddaughter, Mary Grace. Mike had a meeting in Athens, Ga. and since Mary Grace is a student there at UGA, we were able to spend some time with her. How could she be nineteen years of age already? It seems like yesterday when she was born. I can still see her standing at her glass front door crying as I left her. This time, as I dropped her off at the building for her class before leaving town, my tears were the ones falling. I wondered how the years pass so quickly. Many reading this will understand exactly what I mean, and can feel those same feelings.

When we were younger, the years did not pass so quickly. Looking forward we seemed to have all of the time in the world. Not so for me now at the soon to be age of seventy-three. While I think most of us know that we will run out of time before we run out of life, too often we go through our days not seeming to focus on that fact. We fail to think about our limited time, and how we want to spend it. And here we are, soon to be at the end of another year.

Has 2024 been all that you wanted it to be? Have you done the things you wanted to do? Have you spent enough time with the ones you love? Or have you stayed caught up in the busyness of life, failing to focus on what you really want out of life? Have you thought enough about the legacy you are leaving, and how you want to be remembered? Or are you just going along with the flow, letting one year blend into the next, failing to plan at all?

It isn’t too late to change our ways, as long as we have breath. We still have time to be more and do more, but only if we choose to. I have been thinking a lot about this lately, knowing that at my age, my time is limited. While I would love to live to one hundred years of age, like Past president Jimmy Carter, the odds of that are not in my favor. But it really isn’t about how long we live, but how well we live.

We have a little over two months left in 2024. Why not get those resolutions out that were set in January of 2024, and see what remains to be done before 2025? Or do you prefer to just rock along, going through the holidays, waiting for 2025 to come, and set new resolutions?

Your choice. And mine.