Life is like a big box of Legos and I'm running out of pieces...

When we come into this world we are given all the time we need, at least for that moment. All of the time that we will spend here on Earth is poured out on our table of Life like a box of Legos as we begin to build our world.

Each piece symbolizes the amount of time we will spend creating either our cityscape or landscape that will be our identity. The white pieces might represent hours, the blue pieces days, the red pieces months and even some green pieces that might represent years.

Not all of us will have the same amount of pieces. Sadly, some may only have a few. And yet some may have enough time pieces that looks like they would last for an eternity....but they won't. The pieces will begin to slowly disappear.

Some of us will think we have plenty of pieces of time to do all we want in this world and we will carelessly use them up randomly without ever setting a good foundation for our structures.

And, again sadly, some people 's Legos of time can be swept completely off the table in an instant much like the fires and hurricanes that have happened this year. And yes there are those who had taken care and used every block to build for their future with spare blocks of time left over, only to find that through illness or disease that suddenly there are only a few pieces left.

Initially, our parents teach us to use our time blocks to simply take care of ourselves...sometimes a lot of those hour blocks are needed and sometimes we learn more quickly. And then as children we use an abundant amount to simply play never worrying if we will have enough blocks. As students we begin to build our education structures that for some might be the tallest building on their table. For others their structure might be their family and as they construct each time block it not only rises tall but also spreads far and wide.

Some people spend their time building that proverbial stairway to heaven as they use all of their time doing good deeds for their fellow man. And again sadly, some simply throw away their blocks to a life of addiction. And many try to build the tallest structure around with their careers, surpassing all others only to look around and see that no family building, spiritual building or recreational building exists.

As I begin to near yet another milestone in my journey with my 70th coming next year, I took a moment to see just how many time blocks I have used and how many I might have left, assuming they aren't lost suddenly. It's not as many as I had hoped for, seeing I have a lot of buildings and landscapes that I still want to create, but as I take a panoramic view of what I am leaving behind, I'm relatively satisfied. Sure, there's a number of pieces left along the wayside, broken, dented and scraped but at least I had the chance to use them and I am thankful for that.

In closing, I suggest all of us stop for a moment and take a look around. Are there things and places you want to do and see? Do you still have some time blocks left? Are you hoarding your time pieces waiting for the right moment? Choose wisely. Your box of Life Legos can just last so long.

Some memories of past Winters

Now that the first of what will be several Winter blasts has settled in, it didn't take me long to remember some of the lesser sights, sounds, and feelings of my childhood while growing up in the Midwest town of Dayton Ohio. A town, tho not as cold as some in Ohio near the Canadian border, it was still far away from the pleasures of a sun-filled Florida city where many Ohioans went at this time of year. These were the sounds and sights  that are so unique that it takes that sharp slap in the face when you open the door on that first cold Winter day to let the dog out while still dressed in your sleeping attire to make you remember.

One is the disquiet that occurs in the eerie morning after the first snow fall as your galoshes crunch through the snow leaving the first of what will be many footprints throughout the day. Your mission is to simply get to school on time. No playing, no wasting time, no side tracks. All of that will come soon after the day ends and you can enjoy a coldness that is only appreciated by youth. The crunching, the pounding of the snow echoes through the neighborhood as you walk slowly so as not to fall. But it begins to take on a rhythm of its own. You begin to set the crunch to either a Christmas carol still in your head or maybe even a song you heard on the radio. You speed up, you slow down all the time as the neighbor looks out his window and says to their spouse, "There goes that odd Kender boy acting like he is dancing to music".  But in fact you were.

 As your journey to school continues you smell the aroma spewing from a neighbor's fireplace of burning oak. But that incense makes you smile not because you think of yourself sitting in a warm living room, but because it reminds you of where you will be on the weekend. You will be lacing up your ice skates while sitting around the outdoor fire at Icelandia, an ice skating rink in Dayton that was the center of most activity both day and night during the cold Winter months. Sharing hot chocolate with a friend or maybe if you were old enough meeting a special friend  there as you skated hand in hand in a continuous circle as the music played hoping you would not fall and look foolish.

And then finally you are near your school, and as the nuns usher you into the classroom they remind you not to take your warm clothes off just yet because you will be going to daily Mass next door in Church. So you sit there half-warm, half cold waiting. You'll head to Mass, head back to class and then wait until recess and then, then that feeling that reminds you why freezing temperatures are so painful.

You take up the dare from your best friend, as he challenges to stick your tongue out and touch it to the metal sign post. This challenge is new to you. You've never seen it before nor ever witnessed it. But it will be a challenge you will later throw out to friends, companions and not so close companions as you ready yourself to witness one of the most bizarre scenes for a kid in Winter. Your dang tongue will stick to the post. The other kids will scream with laughter, the teachers will come running and thankfully one of the nuns will pour warm water on your tongue to save you.

Yep, just the sounds and smells and feelings of Winter.  A favorite  time of the year.