Don’t Blink

It’s my birthday today.

I stumbled upon this short piece I wrote many years ago, on another birthday, when I was younger and full of exuberance.

It’s galling to think that almost as much time has passed since I first wrote this in 2006… as the time from when I wrote this and I was born.

Sum quod eris

I’m 21 now. I remember being 18. That was big. And then 16, I could drive. I remember 15, wanting to drive so badly. Then I was 12, anxious to be a teenager. Then I was 9, and I didn’t want to turn 10 because I’d finally be in the double digits. I remember my eighth birthday. The first in my new home in Ohio. We had a Halloween party.

Now I’m 21. God, it happened fast.

The sun is bright, the stars are above. The world is old, and I am new. I wonder what I’ll see next.

How precious all of this is, every moment, every second. What a terrible shame that there is so little we must die barely having breathed; that there is so much that we take it for granted, appreciating only when it is too late.

That we live for ourselves, that we suffer no indignity, no ignominy, no disgrace, and no oppression; that we sacrifice nothing without appropriate gain, and that we bow before no one.

Whatever we have is valuable because we won’t have it forever. Would a birthday mean anything if they were infinite? Would life be so wonderful if there was no chance of losing it?

I’m 21 today. It’s just a number, I suppose. But sometimes the littlest things can have the greatest meaning. What is a day, if not a lifetime?

The wind blows, the trees sway; the sun rises, the sun sets; the stars turn, the heavens move; a life begins, a life ends; a day is complete.

All in the course of time.

audeamus