The Best Years of Life...

The best years of life?

Perhaps 6 to 16... 

It's the period between finding your belly button and becoming  - - > Master of the Universe!

From learning to walk in the hallways...to learning how to race on the streets! 

From discovering a Red Crayola...to learning that Red means STOP!!!  OK, so maybe not everyone learns to stop when they see RED by age 16! 

And looking for all things Red (or perhaps Orange!) might be one of the most important accomplishments achieved over a lifetime...

But even more interesting - think back to the four short years specifically from 8 to 12.

Stop for a moment and truly think back to your own childhood...

      the house you lived in at 8 years old...

      the friends you had at 10... 

      the games you played... 

      the discoveries you had made by 11...

      and at 12, perhaps the last year of innocence...

What comes first to mind for you?

Are they good memories or painful to recall? 

Mine are happy.  Every day was an adventure.

A hand-me-down bike, a skateboard made from plywood and an old metal roller skate, playing with Matchbox Cars by the hours, and paper airplanes - 10¢ balsa gliders from Foster's, and skipping rope (the hard kind with people twirling the rope at both ends) and forever playing catch back and forth with a baseball or football...

And of course, sandlot baseball at the cemetery, out in the back, where there was nobody buried...or so we believed...

With our own "Ground Rule Double" so if you hit a fly ball past the infield, 2nd base was as far as you could go because everyone on the field was in the weeds searching for the ball!

Can't forget sledding on Dutton's hill...which was waaaay steeper back then!!!

Hours and hours of "to-back-go" and "olly-olly-in-free" playing Hide and Go Seek.  And getting to play past "dark-thirty" was always the best!

It was climb, run and discover - with no thought of past regrets and never a worry about the future.

At 8, I didn't realize how fleeting and precious time would become...and how life back then was the sweetest and most magical.

It was life lived in the present...fully aware...living moment to moment...from one adventure to the next.

But sometime during the 12th year of my life, I tried to convince the world I was a teenager.

It think it was then...at 12...

...the point at which childhood slipped quietly away.

I didn't see it go...we never shook hands, nor said proper good-byes...in fact, I'm sure at the time, I wished it would leave...

Like most, I simply turned away from the wonders of childhood, and shifted from being fully alive in the present to worrying about the past and about the future to come.

But now at 65...

I am thankful I have no real regrets from the past.  I've always attempted to give life my best and to live with virtue, honor and integrity.  I think that's all that can be asked of anyone.

Though perhaps I still think a bit too much about the future...

It's hard to ignore the uncertainty of life, the rapid passing of time, and of a certain death coming too soon.

The book of Ecclesiastes comes to mind - with life like the withering of grass and vanishing as a vapor...

My thoughts can grow very dark when I consider how fleeting the 65 years have been - and how short the time left...

Though it's not the dieing part which is concerning.  I have no fear of death, it's something I prepared for back at 14.

In fact like Paul, I'm very much ready for it - to die is gain...but still...

Please God, not just yet...

I still have Judy to protect...

I made a promise to her, till death do we part...I've given my life to protect and provide for her...please let me live just one day longer than her...

And I know that I can't control the next moment...

But, I AM in control of my thoughts right now.

So while still here - for perhaps another day...another week...another 30 years - 

I will endeavor to live my life as I did at the age of 8 - quickly forgiving mistakes, and no worrying about the future...

And live each day with focus - 

      to experience the day - just one day at a time...

      to be present between each sunrise and sunset...

      to be light...

      to laugh...

      to find the next great adventure...

      to look for the many wonders of God around me...

      to experience joy from just being alive in the moment...

      and most of all - to be Thankful...

And maybe...just perhaps...the best years of life are still yet to come!!!

Let the adventure continue...