It is mindboggling how quickly life can change. I’ve always heard the phrase “the speed of life”, but honestly never really gave it much thought.
Working at the newspaper will teach one just how quickly life can happen.
One moment a family of four can be riding down the highway for a weekend excursion and the next moment three are dead from a head-on vehicle collision while the fourth battles for their life in the ICU of a local hospital.
Blink. Life happens. Blink again. Another moment that can never be recovered has passed by. I’ve recently made a vow to my daughter and son to not let another single weekend pass by without doing something new or exciting together.
Now, I’m not saying that we’ve become a family of daredevils planning on hiking Mount Kilimanjaro this weekend and sailing through the Bermuda Triangle the next.
The truth is, family time and adventure can be found anywhere. We’ve recently been exploring new board games such as Star Wars Monopoly which goes much faster than its traditional counterpart. We even managed to work in a nerve-wracking game of Jenga on the occasional night.
We go on nightly adventures around the world by reading heart-wrenching true accounts of heroism by reading books such as “I am Malala” by the young Noble Peace Prize winner who was shot in the head for standing up to the Taliban.
We also have gotten out and explored the offerings of south Alabama and northwestern Florida. From the Pitcher Plant Preserve in Splinter Hill just outside of Atmore to the wonderful reenactments put on by the City of Brewton and on a larger scale at Fort Mims.
In fact this past weekend we had the pleasure of attending the yearly reenactment held at the fort on the anniversary of the deadly attack. My children’s eyes, and my own, truth be told, were captivated by the movements of the actors and for a moment we were transported back in time listening to the booming of the guns and peering through the smoke choked air.
By taking this stance of experiencing something new together every week, we hope to measure time a little more slowly. To truly experience the many wonderful things this world has to offer without letting it simply slip by around us with our eyes glued to a television, phone or computer screen.
Don’t let the ever ticking clock of life keep going without finding a way to treasure it. Make the most of each and every moment that you possibly can because all it takes is a single blink of an eye before life can change and be altered forever. After all, the speed of life doesn’t adhere to a speeding limit.
