Time Changes Things

Time. It's a funny thing, isn't it?

Recently at a birthday lunch, I sat among a mixed group of people: three college girls, a grandfather, my husband and me. The conversation flowed from a series of questions that the grandfather was asking the girls. What were they majoring in? What were their favorite classes in school? Did they have brothers and sisters? Eventually the conversation turned towards the topic of bucket lists and what was on these so-called lists. One girl wrote hers at age 12, and now, at age 18, has been able to cross off a few of her 110 items. Still, she wants to live to be 100, climb to base camp on Mt. Everest, run in a marathon, and be a missionary. Moving to the others, we listened to things like sky diving, cliff jumping, hot air balloon rides, getting into a good graduate school and marrying a rich man.

As I sat there listening to these lists of things to accomplish, I wondered what would be on my bucket list at this point in my life. While I can't say that my list would contain 110 things, there are a few certain specifics that would no doubt be included. Things like adoption, starting a family, building a house, and going back to Uganda. Of course, there would probably be some "sillier" things on my list too, but I couldn't help but begin to think about how time changes things. It changes our minds. It changes our bodies. It changes how we look at life and our opinions of the world. It changes our attitudes and perspectives. Our tastes in clothes, food and interior design change. We make new good friends and lose contact with old good friends, simply because our stages in life change.

I couldn't help but laugh to myself at the difference in bucket lists between the college-age crowd and me. Not feeling like I am that far away from the days of my college experience, our bucket lists would prove otherwise. Things that once seemed so important as a college student have now come to pass. Graduation, finding that first job, getting married. Those things that once seemed so big are in the rearview mirror. Only now, there are more things that seem so big standing in front of me. Things that somehow feel so much more important than sky diving or cliff jumping. I'm not saying that the bucket lists of college students are sillier or less important than those of adults, but they are different. Different because those things that are important to us change as time goes on. Things that truly matter to us change with time and as we experience more of the world. Sure, there are still grown adults in their 70's and 80's who are jumping out of planes and off of cliffs, but for the majority, the bucket lists probably don't include such things.

And I wonder what the lists of these three girls will look like in five or ten years. What will my list look like in five or ten years? Will we be able to say what the grandfather said when my husband asked him what was on his bucket list? "I've done it all," he said.

Discriminating towards no one, time heals wounds and opens up new opportunities. It's precious and fleeting. It waits for nobody. Time flies and time crawls. Time brings new friendships and carries old ones to a distance. It brings mountains and valleys, sickness and health, life and death. It changes perspective and opinions. Things that use to matter, don't, and things that we never thought would matter so much rise to the surface.

Yes, time truly does change things.