Time.

[tommy.irene]

Imagine there is a bank account that credits your account each morning with $86,400. It carries over no balance from day to day.
Every evening the bank deletes whatever part of the balance you failed to use during the day. What would you do? Draw out every cent, of course?
Each of us has such a bank. It's name is TIME.
Every morning, it credits you with 86,400 seconds.
Every night it writes off as lost, whatever of this you have failed to invest to a good purpose.
It carries over no balance. It allows no over draft. Each day it opens a new account for you. Each night it burns the remains of the day.
If you fail to use the day's deposits, the loss is yours. There is no drawing against "tomorrow."
You must live in the present on today's deposits. Invest it so as to get from it the utmost in health, happiness and success!
The clock is running!! Make the most of today.

To realise the value of ONE YEAR, ask a student who failed a grade.

To realise the value of ONE MONTH, ask a mother who has given birth to a premature baby.

To realise the value of ONE WEEK, ask the editor of a weekly newspaper.

To realise the value of ONE HOUR, ask the lovers who are waiting to meet.

To realise the value of ONE MINUTE, ask a person who just missed a train.

To realise the value of ONE SECOND, ask someone who just avoided an accident.

To realise the value of ONE MILLISECOND, ask the person who won a silver medal at the Olympics.

Treasure every moment that you have! And treasure it more because you shared it with someone special, special enough to spend your time with. And remember time waits for no one.

Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. Today is a gift. That's why its called the present.

[malacandran]

These are good points. They bring to mind a novel by C S Lewis: "Perelandra".

In this novel, Professor Weston says:

"That's why it's so important to live as long as you can.  All the good things are now - a thin little rind of what we call life, put on for show, and then - the real Universe for ever and ever...the inner darkness: under the rind. All witless, all twittering, gibbering, decaying - ghosts that hate the living, who are still enjoying the rind. Just as old women hate girls who still have their good looks.

So - to thicken the rind by one centimetre - to live one week, one day, one half-hour longer - that's the only thing that matters. Every man who is waiting to be hanged knows it. You may say, what difference does a short reprieve make?  What difference!!"

A gloomy view. Is it true, do you think?

[mitzigirl_123]

These are good points. They bring to mind a novel by C S Lewis: "Perelandra".

Or a song

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXFh-mYh2dQ#

[bankhaunter]

WHAT is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare?—

No time to stand beneath the boughs,
And stare as long as sheep and cows:

No time to see, when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass:

No time to see, in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars, like skies at night:

No time to turn at Beauty's glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance:

No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began?

A poor life this if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.

W.H. Davies.

[mitzigirl_123]

Time present and time past

Are both perhaps present in time future

And time future contained in time past

T. S. Eliot (1888-1965) Four Quartets ‘Burnt Norton’ (1936)

[malacandran]

Did T S  Eliot influence Orwell?

"Who controls the past, controls the future: who controls the present, controls the past."

[bankhaunter]

For those who think of their life and the passing of time, a 4,000 year old Assyrian tablet stated "The gods do not subtract from men's lives, the hours spent fishing".

I knew there was a good reason for spending so  much time by the river.

[blackburn_stevie]

Speaking of fishing ..... A long time ago, a friend and I had a rule. I always got to our fishing spot on the river about 90 minutes before he did and, because of the way it was set out, our spot was about 300 yards downstream from a bridge that spanned the river. Anyway, as he passed over the centre of the bridge, he would drop a Pooh stick into the river. He now had to get to my side, set out his seat and sit down before the stick passed us on the river.

If he made it, I had to go to the cafe just behind where we sat and buy 2 bacon butties and 2 coffees. If he lost, he went to the shop but I set his gear up. Don't laugh but it was the only exercise that he ever got.