THE TIME HAS COME

When I started posting these thoughts on Thursday’s Child three years ago, I considered calling it something like “The Time Has Come.”

The phrase is from Lewis Carroll’s verse, “The Walrus and The Carpenter,” a part of Through the Looking Glass. I read the whole poem, and decided I didn’t especially like the way it turned out.

But “The time has come” stuck with me. And it’s apt, in all seasons of our lives.

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For example:

#1. My current house project—insulation and new siding—starts next week. That’s a reminder that I need to deliver boxes of books, DVDs, and CDs to the library for their monthly Friends of the Library sale. Yesterday I actually made the trip, with five fairly heavy boxes of stuff in the car. (I’m always thrilled with strong-armed women who come out and empty my trunk. Once was enough for me to fill it.)

#2. The time has also come for me to buckle down and put my foot on the sewing machine pedal. Christmas gifts don’t get made without a little physical effort on my part.

#3. Today, September 22^nd, is the first day of Autumn. Yard work awaits—trimming back the peonies and hostas, cleaning up the landscaping beds (the birds are messy eaters; they leave a lot of seeds on the ground and I now have little patches of grass under the feeders, plus one little sunflower); picking up fallen sticks and limbs before they’re covered in leaves. Or, that white stuff. You know, snow.

It occurs to me that there’s nothing like a deadline to provide motivation.

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In another sense, the time has always come—it comes every day, every moment.

We make choices. We ponder where we are in our lives, where we’ve been, where we’re going. We consider what we might have done differently. Or if there’s a way to un-do something we now regret. (I’ve found un-doing most often requires forgiveness—and we talked about that a week or so back.)

One of my favorite quotes comes from Maya Angelou, an American poet:

   “If you don't like something, change it.

   If you can't change it, change your attitude.”

The time has come to take inventory of our lives—think things over; get rid of negative thoughts; adopt some happier ways of coping. Change what we can. Change our attitude, if that’s all we can do.

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Here’s a closing thought, also from Maya Angelou:

   “I'm convinced of this: Good done anywhere 
   is good done everywhere. For a change, start by
   speaking to people rather than walking by them 

   like they're stones that don't matter. As long as 
   you're breathing, it's never too late to do some good.”

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We start where we are—in our small town or city, on vacation or on the job, with our families or complete strangers. There’s no reward for doing good, except that we know we’re doing the right thing.

And remember—my way of doing good in the world may not be your way.

The time has come . . . .