The Passage of Time

I am going through the later albums of a singer song writer I like who wrote Family Tree.  There are actually a number of them as Family Tree was written in 2010.  It seems unbelievable that that was like 15 years ago.
I guess that is why the words on one of his later albums struck me like they did. “Holding times like holding sand / always slipping through my hands.”
It really does seem hard to believe that time appears to have gone so quickly. It is a cliché when young about how quickly time passes.  It does not seem believable, and it is something I did not really think about.
I do remember when I was about 10 and a guy had a brother in his thirties.  That seemed like soooo old and inconceivable to me.  Getting older was something that appeared to happen to others, but not what I considered for me.
My teens and twenties seemed to fly by.  I knew my share of joy and heartache. But I remember hopping on a bus to go north when I turned 30 and the guy next to me saying how quickly the thirties go by.
He was right.  My 30’s and 40’s I have very little recollection of.  I was busy living and I do know they were great times.  Yet they were really lived with no thought of my later years.  I took out insurance, but that was something that was sensible to do.  It is only now that I am older I see how sensible it was.
Yet I have come to see that no matter what precautions I take the future is an unknown.  Some live for ages, and some lives are cut short.  It is really an unknown.
No matter what, age catches up with me. I do not have the energy I did.  I am happy to have others do things I did myself once.  I get mysterious aches for apparently no reason.  Not to mention the stroke I so did not see coming.  It was amazing really.  The doc. Had told Merril I would likely live 6 months and be in a wheelchair.  I thank God that did not happen; but it highlights to me the fragility of my life.
I remember a friend saying that he knows the years ahead of him are less than the years behind him.
That is probably one of the reasons the words of another song hit me “Dear yesterday / Just called to say I'm leaving.”
I know it is best not to live in the past.  I have confessed my shortcomings and inadequacies and although I have less time on this planet than I did, I want to go out with a bang.  By that I mean I want to make a difference for the better in the life of others and realize my potential.  I think there is enough there to keep me busy.