Time Flies (When it's Not Dragging Along)

Life has been very hectic the last two or three years. So much has gone on. I graduated from high school and started college, got married, and had a baby. I got divorced, went back to college and became a teacher. I moved a few thousand miles from home, became a grandmother, remarried, and lost my mom way too early. A week or so ago Nancy got remarried, and got pregnant for the 3rd time. Thomas is due in a few minutes. Or a few months. Around Father's Day. Okay, okay, so it wasn't two or three years, or a week or so ago. Everything I mentioned happened in the last 34 years. Looking back though, it seems to have all happened so fast.

I have heard that the length of a minute depends on which side of the bathroom door you are standing. An example I have used is that a minute eating an ice cream cone would seem a lot shorter than a minute being hit on the thumb with a hammer. Even just going about our daily business, some days time seems to drag and others it seems to fly by. The year drags by, but when Christmas and New Year's come we wonder where the year went. I still remember when I first noticed that time seemed to be going faster and faster each year. When I was in the ninth grade time seemingly began to speed up, and it has gotten faster each year since.

This reminds me of two quotes. The first was from Kermit the Frog, "Time's fun when you're having flies." I love it! I don't know who said the second one, and it took me a few minutes to get it the first time, but it is, "Time flies like an Arrow. Fruit flies like a banana."

Life is Like a... What?!

Even if you have never seen the movie Forrest Gump, you have most likely heard one of the most famous sayings from it. In the movie, Forrest repeats what he has heard his mother say many times: "Life is like a box of chocolates... you never know what you're gonna get." That saying has always made a lot of sense. When you open a box of chocolates, they all look pretty much the same. Until you bite into a piece, you don't know for sure what the chocolate shell contains.

I got to thinking about that saying tonight though, and it began to make less sense. While it's true that you don't know what flavor the chocolate you pick up will be, you do know that it will be sweet. Life is full of surprises, but they are definitely not all sweet.

This leads me to believe that life is more like a bag of trail mix. When you reach into a bag of trail mix, you do not know if you will pull out a salty nut, a sweet crunchy M&M, a crisp salty pretzel, or a honey glazed cluster of oats.

Life has many sweet moments. It also has its "salty" and even bitter moments. We would love for our lives to consist of nothing but sweet moments, but we know that will not happen during our life here on Earth. Think about that trail mix for a moment. Imagine eating a salty pretzel, then putting that M&M into your mouth. Doesn't it taste just a bit sweeter coming right after that salty pretzel?

Life is like a bag of trail mix... you never know what you're gonna get. But you do know the flavors will all balance each other out.