Encouragement

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Some years ago a book was written on the subject of advanced driving by George Eyles, formerly an insurance assessor. One of his duties was to visit the scene of motoring accidents and to decide, as best he could, what caused it and where the blame lay. Many of these were serious accidents, sometimes involving a fatality and were often, in the author’s opinion, the result of speeding.

So what has this to do with time? Well, the outcome of the tests usually showed that the crash occurred because someone, in order to save time, took a terrible risk, and lost the gamble. But, said Mr. Eyles, what if the crash hadn’t happened and the driver had got away with the chance he had taken?

What if he hadn’t been killed? What would he have done with those few seconds saved had he lived? The probability is that those precious seconds would have been wasted anyway, squandered on some triviality. Yet the driver had forfeited his life and brought grief and suffering to many others just for that.

However time, like many things, can have different meanings to different people. The person rushing around trying to cope with a multitude of jobs will not view time with the same regard as someone else sitting in a deckchair idly gazing at the waves lapping onto the beach. The trouble is there is so much around that clamours for our attention, such as that favourite TV programme, the internet, and computer games, to name but a few.

Admittedly these do give much pleasure and entertainment to many people, and it is very easy to push an important task to one side while we desperately try to exterminate yet another electronic raider on our computer screen. But we know within ourselves that time is precious and we often feel guilty and even angry with ourselves for having abandoned urgent jobs we know we should have done.

The old adage that time is a great healer is very true. The gentle hand of time works away at every one of us who has been touched by grief or sorrow or anger, gradually healing the wounds that have been inflicted upon the mind and the heart. It softens the awful blow of losing a loved one, it brings together in peace old adversaries, and it re-unites families that have been split by some thoughtless or hasty word.

So time really is a priceless commodity and we should exploit it to the full by improving our minds and our natural talents, for then we will be able to share these skills with others who maybe are less fortunate, thus helping to improve their quality of life and raising their expectations.

Using our time to contribute to those around us in this manner is a bonus because we are acting through one of the great immutable laws of nature that whatever we give, whether it is love or compassion or physical help, will be returned to us multiplied a thousandfold.

The wasting of time is no modern phenomenon however. Horace Mann, who lived from 1796-1859, expressed it thus: ‘Lost, yesterday, somewhere between Sunrise and Sunset, some golden hours, each set with sixty diamond minutes. No reward is offered for they were wasted and are gone forever.’

If we make the most of every golden studded minute that we have available we will have greater command over our daily tasks. Applying always the skill of making the most of our time will add immeasurably to the quality of our life, and the contributions we can make.

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