As I sometimes sit and reflect on the past, I recall; taking the kids to grandma’s house, listening to the sounds of Motown and Stax recordings, going to concerts of favorite artists and many other memories of days gone by. As the sounds of Motown and Stax have given in to the music of today, the trips to grandma’s house have become a thing of the past. The kids are grown now and have families of their own. We are now the grand parents and the trips are to our house, or to “gramma’s” house as it is affectionately said by a granddaughter.

Where has all the time gone? It doesn’t seem so long ago that I was full of energy and ready to take on the world, so eager to go to a club or go dancing. Now I’m content at home watching CNN, MSNBC, reading something and enjoying visits from my grandchildren.

The world is constantly evolving. Because of this, things are continuously changing. We are not always aware of the changes that are taking place in our lives until, oops, there it is! The picture you took today does not look the same as the one you took five years ago. Gosh, I didn’t realize I had changed that much!

Scientists estimate the earth to be about 4.5 billion years old. That’s a long time. When you put your life expectancy on the scale of the age of the earth, it is extremely minute. Simply put our life span is negligible when compared with the span of time. It is important to understand that we always live in today. Our yesterday was today and our tomorrow will become today, therefore you never live in yesterday or tomorrow, you always live in today. Certainly we should plan for tomorrow, but in our planning we are planning for when tomorrow becomes today. Never worry about yesterday. You cannot relive it, it’s gone.

I think one should live life to the fullest. “Live as if you will die tomorrow, but plan as if you are going to live forever.” We should do whatever it takes, with in legality, to live an abundant and prosperous life. For that is what God would have us do. So we live and plan, and as we live and plan we gather a wealth of knowledge and wisdom from our experiences. And all of a sudden we have reached our senior years. It is important to understand that children learn and develop from the knowledge and wisdom of those who have gone before them. Our seniors are a storehouse of information that can and should be used to benefit young people.

So as one approaches the twilight years of his life, he sits and reminisces about all the things gone by; the struggles he went through in quest of a good life, his accomplishments, whether materialistic or otherwise. He may ask himself; just what can I do with all my accomplishments? What good are they to me? Depending on his relationship with God, he just might conclude that it was all meaningless.

CLYDE JOHNSON is a retired health physicist from the Norfolk Naval Shipyard. He resides in Franklin and can be reached at 562-4402.