Just 24 Hours

 

It’s 11a.m. on May 27, 2014. I was born 22,705 days ago. That’s 544,896+ hours ago.  Sitting here this morning, I’m wondering… what have I done with all those hours?

I’ve probably slept away at least a third of them, more when I was younger and less the older I get. That’s about 181,700 of those total hours. Because I enjoy eating, I’ve probably spent 2 hours a day doing that, so there just went another 45,000 hours.  Now I’m down to a little over 318,000 hours left to account for. If I had the time and the energy, I could go on and speculate about how many of those hours I’ve played, worked, studied and day-dreamed. I wonder, how many were productive and how many were wasted?

 I’ve read different theories about the number of emotions a person experiences in a life time. One theory says there are eight primary ones, joy, trust, fear, surprise, sadness, disgust, anger and anticipation. And there are more…love, shame, kindness, pity, envy, and the list goes on. In my 544,896+ hours, I know I’ve experience all of them.

But, sitting here this morning, I recognize that although I am who I am today, because of my experiences of the past, what I need to do is look forward. Although I can’t account for every hour of the past 544,896+ of my life, I can start this moment and make sure the next 24 hours are ones I have used well. Although I have plans for most of the next 24 hours, I’ve discovered that plans don’t always work out. I even have dreams for some of the next 24 hours. But like plans, dreams sometimes don’t always work out either. But at the end of the day, I think I’ll still be glad I had those dreams…they gave me something to look forward to.

I wonder who I’ll come in contact with in the next 24 hours?  Because I’ve chosen to live the next several days in solitude, I don’t plan on seeing or speaking to anyone, but I still wonder if my path will intersected the path of someone else? Maybe it will be someone I can help. Or someone whose company I can enjoy? Or maybe it will be someone whose path I will never cross again and we’ll leave each other changed people. Perhaps I’ll have the pleasure of expectantly seeing an old friend.

I wonder what emotions I’ll feel in the next 24 hours. Will I feel joy, grief and love? I know for certain that I look forward to all of them with anticipation. I want to experience whatever God has planned for me in the next 24 hours. And when I sit here tomorrow at this time, I want to know that the hours behind me were the best they could have been.

Twenty four hours from now…I want to be a better person.