[DOF] Entertainment: Time

During my freshman year in college, erm ... don't ask when it was, one of my girl friends gave me a bookmarker with this quotation

Time is too slow for those who wait
Too swift for those who fear
Too long for those who grieve
Too short for those who rejoice
But for those who love, time is eternity

- Henry Van Dyke

Time is too slow for those who wait. 
Have you every heard of the expression, "having to wait is killing me"? It's because we hate waiting. That's why mankind invented everything "instant"; polaroid for instant printed pictures, instant noodles for quick meals, instant coffee for that morning boost, almost everything is readily available in an instant and for those that don't we are left to wait. I bet Cindy can't wait any longer to give birth. I bet most of the Agents can't wait to get to High Management. I bet those seated in a station in UN base, can't wait for the 5min timer to reach 0:00. We are so eager for that thing to happen that we fidget around, we keep looking at our watches/clocks, we pace the room back and forth, we let out a deep sigh of frustration, we ask our dad/mom "are we there yet?" every five minutes, all for the simple reason we just can't wait.

Time is too swift for those who fear.
I remember during history class, the teacher said "Class I'm giving you 10mins to review for a pop quiz"; and everyone scrambles to shove every piece of information into our brains and for some odd reason, the brain refuses to store anything and then before we know it 10mins is over. OMG what happened to 10mins being so long when we have to wait, now it only seems like 10seconds, OMG I am so going to fail this quiz. Have you ever taken someone to the airport knowing it might take years before you see them again? You refuse to leave cause you fear losing contact. Again you sigh in frustration "why are the minutes ticking away so fast?", we fear the uncertainty of the future.

Time is too long for those who grieve.
Sometime ago, I remember it was December 21,a few days before Christmas, my uncle was stabbed more than 10 times in the back by his wife's lover. He was found stiff dead the next morning, coroner said he must've been dead for more than 12hrs. In utmost anger and hatred, my uncle's fingernails were buried deep in his palms, in a fist. He was laid to rest December 23. Christmas was different that year, it was a time of grieving and mourning and honestly speaking, each day didn't seem to want to end. Although it has been years since, I believe when you lose someone to death, you never stop actually grieving, you just learn to live one day at a time without them.

Time is too short for those who rejoice.
When our college basketball team won back-to-back championships, everyone was ecstatic, everyone was hyped and pumped up to party; but after only 2 days the whole team was back in the gym learning new plays and sweating it out on the hard court. They didn't even have enough time to rejoice with everyone and before they knew it, the hype was all over, the party has ended and it's back to reality.

For those who love, time is eternity. To be honest for those who love, time is all of the above.  Sometimes it is slow when we have to wait for our loved ones to spend time with us. We keep looking at our watches/clocks anxiously waiting for our boyfriend/girlfriend/lover/wife/husband to show up at the restaurant so we could have a nice quiet dinner with them. Sometimes we are only given an amount of time that seems so swift and we have to say goodbye and return to a relationship of being long distance. Sometimes it is too long to grieve for our loved ones, we don't know how we can even manage to get on with out lives without them. Sometimes it is too short to rejoice with them that we do everything we can to hold on to that moment but still time has it's own way. But for those who truly love, it is not how long, nor how short the time given to us is, it is how we make of our time with the people we love.

The best gift you can give your loved ones this Christmas is your time.
Make it count.
Make it meaningful.
Make it memorable.
Make it timeless.