Snippets of Time, Woven Together

In computer terms, a "byte" is a small grouping of 8 bits (the very smallest unit of information). Historically, it was the unit that symbolized a single character on the keyboard. For example...

     L

However, something really amazing happens when you put several bytes together. You can get... 

     Life

Wow. Simply integrating more than one byte creates a completely different unit and thus a different thought and emotion when you see the individual elements combined together as a whole. Imagine what you can see or create using today's standard in computing. As a rough estimate, 1 Gigabyte = 1,000,000,000 bytes. That's a billion characters! Most of your computing devices have at least 32 GB and up to 500 GB of possibilities.

In a similar comparison, a snippet is a little fragment. It is brief, and it is a small part of something. It represents a moment in time, but it is not the whole. Time, on the other hand, is a continued process of existence. It includes you, but it also precedes you and outlives you. It is now, and it is then.

You see snippets all the time. Social media is a fun way to showcase the pieces of your life and view many, many moments of others' lives. It gives you a way to see what is happening with friends or acquaintances from near or far away. Distant grandparents can enjoy their grandchildren. Graduations, weddings, births and other milestone events can be celebrated. Even daily events can be showcased. I got a new haircut (selfie moment). It's my son's birthday. Starbucks has PSLs! The Broncos won (again).

I've been thinking of how these snippets are kind of like "bytes" of time. They are short and exist for a day, a week, and then they slip away. A snippet by itself is cute, interesting, or funny. A collection of snippets over a period of time gives perspective. It gives a more expansive understanding. It gives endurance. Snippets can form a tapestry of time in the shape of words, sentences, thoughts and pictures that elicit memory, emotion, and reflection. This collective expression also has the potential to provoke enduring gratitude.

Recently I began the process of converting my digital tapes to DVDs. In the olden days (i.e., the 1990s), we used a camcorder with video cassettes to capture significant events. A little here, a little there, until you had a single tape to watch that captured some highlights of a year of your life and the lives of those friends and family closest to you. It was a tangible expression of memory, and thus, a catalyst to remembrance. The tapes also demonstrated a sequence of time, maturity, and growth. They displayed 'what was' compared to 'what is'. They showed how far we had come. Watching the progression established not only advancement but also affirmed purpose and vision, particularly during the very busy days with young children. You had a chance to say, "Yeah, we're are building something here, and I can see it." The day-to-day journey became a life journey, and the leap to appreciation was not so much of a leap anymore.

With a smile, I reminisced my technological journey. The telephones in my childhood home were connected to the wall with a curly cord that limited my mobility (and my privacy). If I wanted to take pictures, I had to visit the local drugstore and buy 110 film which always turned out grainy and shadowy. Processing film could take days or a week, but completing the pictures on a roll of film... now THAT could take months or more if your life happened to be particularly boring at the time. By the time you took the film to be developed, you had forgotten what was on it! Polaroid cameras were a huge step forward, as they allowed you to take only 1 photo and "instantly" see your photos (mere minutes were "instant" to us). 

In high school, I enjoyed vinyl albums, 8-track tapes, and cassettes. Without enough money to buy all the albums containing the songs I liked, I would sit by the radio with my cassette recorder and wait patiently for my favorite songs to come on, quickly pushing the record button in order to have access to these songs whenever I wanted to listen to them. No one I knew owned their own computer. We used the computers that were available at school.

Well, things have changed a little, and I am so thankful for the technological advancements. I love my smart phone and DSLR camera. The CDs which were so awesome in my college days are quickly becoming extinct as Spotify and digital downloads replace them.  I'm so grateful to now have my own computer, flash drives, and dropbox. You can get access to any song, video, photo or application for less than the cost of a sweet tea from Chick-fil-a and much more quickly than any Polaroid picture.

In the Twitter world, less is definitely better. In fact you have a maximum limit of 140 characters to speak your mind. Snapchat's appeal is that the photos are there for a short time and then they vanish. No storage space required. No lasting memory. The wireless way of the future is upon us. Bulky stereo players can only be found in the attic or at a garage sale. VCRs have bit the dust (good riddance). Telephones that take up valuable counter or wall space are quickly becoming a thing of the past. 

In the midst of all this wonderful technology, there are questions that plague me for our present generation. Are we losing something of the beauty and richness of the preservation of the whole of time in our pursuit of the celebration of a moment in time? As we walk the road of instant communication, are we losing the ability to step back and see the big picture? Are we setting ourselves up to forget?

November is the month we try to focus on remembering and on thankfulness. It is a month that can get lost in the seasonal transition from fall to Christmas. In like manner, I wonder if we are getting lost in the technological transitions. Despite the amazing technology that allows me to write and post this blog which can be read by hundreds of people in a moment of time, I'm curious about how we, as a generation, maintain a long-term approach to time. 

Today, as you post that 10 second video, Instagram your favorite photo, or tweet your thought for the day, consider taking the time to invest in the preservation of those memories. A photo album or an iMovie compilation of clips can give your future teen a cool look at their childhood odyssey.  A personal journal or blog can be a lasting testament to everyday thoughts and feelings as you walk through both joyous times and difficult ones. Yes, it takes a little more time than a post. It is an intentional investment of time, but in my opinion, a worthy one. It is a way of living in the moment, while reflecting on the past and building for the future. 

You can create something bigger than the moment, something bigger than yourself. Not only will it afford you a more significant perspective of time, it will capture and preserve small moments of time and weave them into a beautiful picture. You can take the 'L' and transform it into 'Life.' Something for you. Something for those who enjoy life with you. Something for those who come after you. A legacy that remains. A legacy of time and of gratitude.

Teach Me to Number My Days

In today's technological world, there are tracking devices to count virtually everything. Considering this fact causes great happiness for the math lover inside me. Numbers are everywhere.

How many steps are in my workout routine.
How many calories I've consumed at a meal.
How many likes I've had on Facebook.
How many days in my credit card billing cycle.
How many days until Christmas.
How many days it's been since I posted to my blog.

Ok, so it's been awhile since I've been online, writing for this blog. Here is my overt, non-apologetic defense. A lot has been going on in the last few months, and I've been actively participating in every moment of it.

To recap the highlights... I've watched 3 of my kids graduate: one from middle school, one from high school, and one from college, along with all the festivities associated with each. I've packed, moved, and unpacked in a new house. I've taken a traditional mother/daughter trip, precariously scheduled at the last possible second. I've planned and enjoyed our last full summer and family vacation with all 5 kids still living at home. (Sigh...) I've traveled to the east coast and to the west coast to help my kids transition into the next phase of their lives. I've taught my daughter to drive a car (which means I've also amassed a few more gray hairs). I've helped my other daughter recover from wisdom teeth removal. I've hosted an Australian friend of my son. Oh, and did I mention that I moved, attended high school graduation, and recovered my escapee dog who was roaming the neighborhood in the pouring rain, all on the same day??? That was the same day I think I had an emotional meltdown. I think you get the idea.

And then I took a breath.

I remembered a scripture that took on new meaning for me this summer.

"Teach us to number our days, that we may present to You a heart of wisdom." (Psalm 90:12)

My days are numbered. Your days are numbered.

I began to consider and ponder what that meant. If I were to go to the doctor and he had said to me, "Angie, you have only 6 months to live," how would I approach that 6 months? 6 months is definitely a number of days. To be exact, it's 180 days: a finite, soon-to-be-gone number.

So what is different about my life now as opposed to that hypothetical scenario? My true reality is that I have only a definite, specific, soon-to-be-gone number of days left on this earth. The difference is that I don't know the exact number of those days that I have left. Perhaps it's 20 years, or approximately 7,300 days. Perhaps it's 7 years or only 7 more summers. Perhaps it really is 6 months. 180 days. I do not know the exact number of my days. But I do know that they are numbered.

If you know that you have only a certain number of days to live, it affects your perspective, your outlook, your choices. You realize that each day is a gift, and that we all can make decisions about what is most important and how we choose to spend our time.

This summer, my first born child became a fully independent adult including a having a full-time job, an apartment, and insurance. That's the real indicator of adulthood: not the fact that you have attained to a legal drinking age, but that you have auto and health insurance. Congratulations. You are now an adult.

Additionally, this week my last child entered high school, and I began my 10th year of being the mother of a highschooler. I must admit that I was counting down the days of middle school. Just like toddlerdom, the end of middle school days could not come fast enough for me. Even so, it seemed like just yesterday that I was buckling up a carseat or reassuring a crying infant in the middle of the night.

Then I blinked.

Our days are numbered.

Though that realization of the finite quality of our life is vital, the next part of the scripture holds the most powerful insight for me. When I realize that each day is a gift, God can give me a heart of wisdom to purposefully and powerfully live out each of those days. Not only that, we then get to present that heart of wisdom back to Him, as a good and acceptable gift!

There are so many nuggets of truth I could share or thoughts we could ponder in this line of thinking, but I settled on just a few essentials in gaining the wisdom we need as we number our days.

1. Know your priorities and keep them in focus.

It is important to clearly identify your values, priorities and goals on a regular basis. I generally do this at least once a year, usually during the summer. Without a clear focus, the press of everyday life and busyness can quickly choke out the most important things. For me, that meant that my writing would have to take a backseat to my family this past summer because family is one of my top priorities. Remember: you will miss your target if you can't see it clearly. 

2. Live your life with no regret.

In saying this, I am not suggesting that we adopt the "Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we may die" mantra that is mentioned in Isaiah 22 and alluded to in Ecclesiastes 8. As a follower of Jesus, my desires are no longer just for my own pleasure in life. We all have opportunities to serve, chances to love, places where we can engage fully in a God-ordained moment. There is purpose in our lives and impact that we can have while we are on earth. Those are the places I want to have no regret. As I look back, I want to have seized as many opportunities as I can to do what is in my heart, knowing that as I interact with God, he is inspiring and shaping my desires. My job is to follow these passions and priorities, and thus, follow Him.

3. Be in charge of your life, not a victim of it.

In Philippians, Paul said that he learned to be content in whatever circumstance, good or bad. I believe that contentment also has joy attached to it. If my joy is lost for significant periods of time, then I need to seek a solution to regain it. Pain and difficulty in life do come, but the majority of my life should not consist of suffering. In the list of fruit of the Holy Spirit, joy is 2nd on the list. It is essential as we journey through our numbered days. Not everything that happens in your life is ordained by God to happen. Yes, he is omnipotent, omnipresent, and all powerful, but the world we live in and our mortal bodies are subject to the consequences of the fall and of sin. We need wisdom to know when we are not experiencing all of the life that God intended for us, and the courage to pursue it and make changes as needed when our circumstances don't match up.

4. Reflection and gratitude must be a regular part of your life.

I recently read a list of attributes of happy people. Two of the things on the list were time for reflection each day, and expressions of appreciation. Without contemplation, it is sometimes difficult to realize where we should be thankful. Sometimes it is challenging to find something good in a day. That's where the reflection comes in. On the surface, circumstances may seem dark and dismal. As we look deeper, we will find reasons for gratitude.

Wisdom is personified throughout the Proverbs as a sometime elusive woman who, if found, can make a man wealthy and give him life. I hope to attain that wisdom as I number and consider each day. My resulting heart of wisdom is a gift I can then give back to Him.