WACKY WEDNESDAY WISDOM: Pill Containers Don't Lie

      Pill containers don't lie. I didn't have "one slot for each day of the week" pill containers in my bathroom when I was young. But as I've gotten older, not only do I have pill containers that have a slot for each day of the week, I also have the obnoxious ones that like to remind me I'm getting old. How so, you may ask? Because the older I get, the bigger the containers get. Mine now even have separate compartments for morning and evening. Someday if I'm blessed to make it into my 80s, my pill containers will likely be the size of bricks. 

     I remember writing something a few years back about how time seems to pass more quickly as we age. It seems that I had been staring at an empty weekly pill container and was certain I had just filled it up four days earlier. But indeed a week had passed and I didn't even realize it. Flash forward to a few days ago. Once again I stared at an empty weekly pill container yet I was certain I had filled it just two days previous. To my horror I realized it had been an entire week since I had filled it but my internal clock had indicated that only two days had passed. Pill containers don't lie. Time really does move faster as we age. 

     My wife and I dropped our youngest son off at college recently and two weeks later he graduated from that same college. I was certain it had only been two weeks but a look at the calendar corrected my assumption and quickly I realized it had been three years. 

     It took forever for Christmas to arrive when I was a child and nowadays, it comes and goes in a blink and it's July 4th before you know it. Time really does move faster as we age. And pill containers don't lie. They supply one day at a time for one week, no more no less. But I would almost swear (though I don't swear) they are cheating me out of some days along the way, because I'm filling them up every other day, it seems. 

     On the day I graduated high school in 1982, I couldn't even comprehend being old enough to attend my children's high school graduations one day. But now I have attended not only their high school graduations, but all three of their college graduations as well. 

     Loretta Lynn once walked off stage during the middle of one of her concerts, claiming: "Things are moving too fast in my life". I know how she feels. Why doesn't time have a pause button like a DVD player? Then we could take a moment, catch our breath, regroup, and take a break from filling up the pill container for the upcoming week. 

     But alas, time doesn't stand still and the pill container beckons. So what are we humans to do? We feel that time is whirling out of control similar to when an ice skater starts spinning more and more rapidly as she brings her arms closer to her body. But at least she (or he if we're being politically correct) can choose when to stop the spin. We can't.

     However, pity me not because I have discovered a solution to the above dilemma. It puts all this "time spinning out of control" and "pill container filling up and rapidly emptying" stuff into perspective. There's a simple solution: Focus on what is constant. Dwell on that which doesn't change. 

     The Bible says in Isaiah 40:8- "The grass withers, the flower fades, but the Word of our God will stand forever". Malachi 3:6 states: "For I the Lord do not change", and Hebrews 13:8 tell us that "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever". 

     Focusing on the constants in my life helps me survive the rapid spin of time. My "growing up family" has been a constant all my life. And my wife has been a constant for the last thirty-five years. My sons have been a part of my life from the moment the little crosses on the sticks told us my wife was pregnant with each of them. But the most constant, unchanging aspect of my life has been the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. They never change. They've always been there and always will be. There's no spin cycle with them. They just are. 

     I've convinced myself that people who complain about time passing too quickly are ones who have regrets. Ones who feel they have wasted time and life has slipped away from them somehow. And I vowed early on not to be one of those. Give me your best shot, Father Time. I'm not scared of you. I'm going to continue to seize every day and fall asleep at night knowing I didn't waste the day. So bring on the spin.

     But for now I must go. Gotta fill up the pill container for the week. I filled it up yesterday but it's already empty again. Go figure.