Frittern

   Time is a gift. I guess that is an old man talking, realizing that I have spent much more of any time that I am allotted than I have left to spend. When I was younger, time seemed to extend out from wherever I was toward infinity, but now it seems like there is a definite end coming one day.

   I thought of an image that I captured some months back:

   The hands on this clock in the garden of a friend have stopped. Though actual time runs on, for this one it is frozen. One day my earthly time will be like the timepiece, only a decoration in a garden, if that much.

   I had a quick reminder of all of this on a short walk this early morning. Knowing I had a meeting in less than an hour, I sensed that I still needed to walk. I had already read some, and I wanted to be able to write, but I walked anyway. I stopped to talk to a man in the other building, and while we chatted, I felt a pull to get back home and write, that I really did not have the time to stand there and gab.

   But then I thought "maybe this was the purpose of my getting out, to have a few moments with this person. Maybe he was needing to talk to someone". Now, we did not talk on a deep level, but I did still take the time to acknowledge him, and maybe that was all he needed.

   As I continued on back to the condo, a line from a Broadway musical came to mind. From the Music Man:

And all week long your River City
Youth'll be frittern away, 
I say your young men'll be frittern!
Frittern away their noontime, suppertime, choretime too!

   I can spend my time "frittern" away on things that do not matter, or I can listen to prodding of the spirit and get out and go, taking the time along the way to see other people and to hear them also.

   As the clock in the garden reads, my 10:25 time can come at any moment.

   Please God, help me not to fritter.