January usually seems like a long month with its short, dark days. But the stunning sunrises and sunsets, along with the milder weather, have made the month an enjoyable one – and it seems to be flying past.
Either that or it is simply because I am now "over-the-hill" and therefore life is beginning to hurtle past at an alarming rate of knots.
Is that what happens the older you get? The days pass more quickly? Or is it that the years bring a greater awareness of how short life is? It’s these cheery thoughts that keep me going!
I can remember as a trainee minister in my early 20s thinking, at the funerals of people in their 40s and 50s, that at least they had had some life. Now I think – how young! How much more they still had to offer and experience. All things are relative.
How slow or how fast a day goes, however, doesn’t really matter compared to what we do with that day. Do we make the most of it? Do we enjoy it?
It is not possible to have a smile on our faces every waking moment, but even when tough times hit, if we have someone whose shoulder we can cry on, or someone to lean on, then it can be a "good" day.
There is, though, more to a day than what we get out of it for ourselves. There is what we put into it.
I think we have each been put on this earth to make a difference – whether to the life of just one other person, to hundreds of others or to the world itself.
In each day we can make a difference for the better to our families, to friends, to our communities, nation and world. That sounds a bit over the top but it’s true.
What we do can encourage others. It can change things. One tiny action or even word from us can begin a chain of events that can have repercussions way beyond anything we could ever imagine.
For better... or, it has to be said, for worse.
The choice is ours.
At school assembly last week I got the students to think about having a remote control that could fast forward the classes they least liked and replay good times with friends. I asked them to think about who they would mute and what aspects of life they might skip altogether.
I wondered how many of them would fancy owning such a remote control. There were no takers. They were not daft. They could see where I was going.
Life, I told them, has no remote control. You have to get up and change it yourself. Corny I know, but true.
And that is the opportunity we each have with every new day: the opportunity to make the most of all the 24 hours before us. Let’s live life to the full. Now and always.
Susan Brown
