Do you ever think or say: “When I have time, I’ll get right on that project.” Or perhaps: “I’ll take care of that tomorrow or next week.” Since Scarlett O’Hara is an amalgam of stereotypical women of a certain period in the South, I doubt we are espousing her beliefs and attitudes. However, we do “save” some projects for the right time, but that time never seems to appear.

Some folks vow to “take a vacation” when the time is right only to find out the time never seems to be quite right until they’re no longer able to do it. Sure, they have the plans all drawn up-going to Yosemite or Glacier for a good hike, taking up sailing or snorkeling in Maui with Kai Kanani, exploring the forests of Peru, and whatnot! But when do they actually go? Never. Others might tell themselves they’ll get back to church when it feels right, never slowing down enough or pausing to realize the time is always right for God, and returning to church or admitting God into our lives is easier than it seems.

Those who stress or fret about making changes in their lives – large or small – sometimes need to know others will walk with them on their way. It makes any journey easier to know you are not alone and can share hopes and fears with someone else.

We talk often about not having enough time to start or finish our projects whether they will fill us with joy or cause a bit of frustration before they are completed.

I always wish I had more time to take photos, but I rarely set aside any hours or even minutes to just go out and “shoot.” The times when I do, I’m astonished at how much I can do with whatever time I dedicated to it. And it’s often the photo that I almost skip that turns out to be the one I really want. That is as true now as it was 20 years ago as I watched a nun watering a garden early one morning in Croatia. I almost skipped the photo, and actually forgot about it. Back at home, I shuffled through my photos and came to that one and realized it was one of the best in the group.

We all need to take our moments as they present themselves, not pushing away for a better or more appropriate time. We’ll never have these moments again. No matter how much or how little we have, none of us can “buy” more time. I know more than ever now what my mother used to say when we wanted to sleep in on Saturday mornings as teens. “You’re sleeping your life away,” she told us. We certainly didn’t appreciate her efforts to rouse us by vacuuming under our beds as we covered our heads with pillows, but we do now.

Ah, hindsight is always 20/20. But we can make each day count now, not looking back at time we might have wasted. Our time belongs to God and it takes so long to realize, understand and accept that – at least it did for me. Once, many years ago when I was working on a story, typing happily away on my computer and almost finished with it, the computer crashed, and I lost the story. After I recovered from the shock, I shrugged my shoulders and said “God didn’t like that one,” and began the rewrite.