Sunset

As another day draws to a close and another page in the book of our life closes it brings us one more sunset. The sunset is my favorite part of the day. It’s a time of reflection and a time of taking stock and inventory of what was accomplished during the daytime hours.  It’s a time to sit back and relax and enjoy the company of friends and family. It’s the final chance of the day to see God’s artistic hands in motion. The colors against the clouds with the sun setting, it’s almost like a metaphor of life.  I think the older I get the more I enjoy the beautiful sunset.  In order for you to enjoy it you have to give up a day. That means for every sunset that you have enjoyed you have given up roughly 24 hours, give or take a few minutes. It also means it’s one less sunset that you will see in your lifetime. That is a little depressing sorry. 

  As we get older and head into the sunset of our lives, we start to realize how valuable time is.  You don’t think much about time in your 20’s because you think you have a lot of it. As you get closer to fifty and that is as far as I can go, you start trying to figure out what is worth your time.  I have come up with a few things that aren’t worth wasting your time over. I am not going to say I have perfected the non-wasting of time this is just observational.

  Relationships that aren’t healthy are a waste of time.  I wasted lot of time to come to this realization. I see so many people being beat down with the relationship they are in.  You don’t have to be with someone that abuses you emotionally or physically they are both equally destructive to you. A relationship that is always taking and never giving is a waste of my time. I have tried to teach my girls that you need to find a man that treats you like a princess. Find a man who is devoted to you and would not hurt you in any way. That someone will love you for who you are.   I wasted a lot of years with the wrong person. I lived a life trying to be someone I wasn’t.  Something good came out of it. Three wonderful girls who are part of my life came out of it.  Always try to find the positives in a bad situation.  

    Negative people are a waste of time. I don’t want to be around someone always complaining about everything. I have worked with and for those type of people and it makes for a long day. You spend 8 hours a day trying to make them happy.   My job is not to make anyone happy. They have to learn how to be happy for themselves.  This is another reason why some relationships don’t work. We are subconsciously taught throughout our lives that we can make our spouse happy.  A person has to like the situation or relationship they are in.  The thought of you being there might make them happy. I just don’t subscribe to the belief it’s my job to make everyone happy. I can make them laugh and take their minds off of their worries for a while but that is totally different from making them happy.

    Regrets are a waste of time. We spend so much time looking behind us we miss all of life in front of us.  After 20 years of marriage and walking away from that relationship, I could have lived with a lot of regret. I chose to look forward to see what was in store for me.   It was hard to close that chapter in my life but I knew that it needed to be done and made the decision. I was scared and uneasy about the future. As it turns out I was scared for nothing and worried over nothing. By the way, that’s 2 more time wasters. Look, we absolutely have very little control if any over the future. We can stress out about mistakes in our past and totally ignore the future, or we can stress out over the future and live each day in dread and fear. I won’t settle for less than the best God has to offer me each and every day.  I want to live my life for the here and now.  I lost a brother at 25 years of age.  He had the possibility of seeing around 9,130 sunsets in his lifetime. Now most would not think about a life being over at 25 and we didn’t. That’s the wonder of life; we never know exactly when our last sunset comes.  Remember this time is something, which once it’s used you can never get back.  As you sit and enjoy that sunset tonight, think about what your life is worth in the value of time.

Kenney Pope