Making of Music

Someone once told me that life is like a roll of toilet paper.  The closer we get to the end, the faster it goes.  I don't think I am necessarily "close" to the end, but I would agree 100% that time goes by faster the older I get.  It literally feels like yesterday that I was in middle school sneaking out to my best friend's mom's car during "yearbook" and sneaking snacks, or making up football plays in the driveway until way past bedtime, or even wearing my headgear...that's right...headgear.  Maybe I'm just being nostalgic about my youth because life is changing so fast.  I am excited about all the changes, I just sometimes wish it would slow down.  My life is changing, my friends' lives are changing, the world is changing, it's nuts-o!  One of my absolute best friends called me today, and she now has a publicist, photo-shoots, shows, and may be going to LA to shoot a music video.  Time-out.  We were just having Ovaltine sleep-overs YESTERDAY.  I'm getting married in January and I was just a flower-girl YESTERDAY.  

Don't get me wrong, I do not wish I was back in middle school or anything like that (yikes), I just think I am first-handedly experiencing the emotions I have witnessed in my parents and other adults, and the emotions at which I used to roll my eyes when I was a kid and think "Gosh, what's all the fuss about?  Time doesn...let's go ride the go-kart!"  I think during this time of change, now more than ever, I am appreciating the idea of living and appreciating each and every day.  My mind goes to the song by Kenny Chesney "Don't Blink."  In the song, a man turns 102, and tells everyone watching his news interview not to blink because time goes by so fast...we should listen to him!  Even when we have a bad days, and we just want them to end, they are a part of our lives whether we like it or not, and should be appreciated for what they are.  I think for so much of our life we think about what we want to do with our lives and forget that it's actually happening.  Right now.  There is such a mentality of anticipation in us young folk.  Anticipation about high school, then immediately following freshman year (at least for me) anticipation for college, then anticipation for turning 21, then anticipation for graduating, then anticipation for relationships, anticipation for careers, anticipation for EVERYTHING.  Anticipation can be a great thing; it can encourage, motivate, and inspire, but it can also make us miss-out on the now.  I think it is great to have goals and dreams, but if our heads are only in the future, we'll find ourselves where missing out on our current life.  No matter how boring or mundane a day may seem, it is still a part of this crazy adventure called life, and it should be appreciated as such.

I will leave you with one of my all-time favorite quotes:

"Not without design does God write the music of our lives.  Be it ours to learn the tune, and not be dismayed at the "rests."  They are not to be slurred over, not to be omitted, not to destroy the melody, not to change the keynote.  If we look up, God Himself will beat the time for us.  With the eye on Him, we shall strike the next note full and clear.  If we sadly say to ourselves, "there is no music in a 'rest,'" let us not forget "there is the making of music in it."  The making of music is often a slow and painful process in this life.  How patiently God works to teach us!  How long He waits for us to learn the lesson!"

-John Ruskin