<\/p>\n
If I Could Save Time in a Bottle<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cIf I could save time in a bottle<\/em><\/span> The other day, my youngest son sent me a picture of my granddaughter taking a hike with him on a beautiful woodland hiking trail. Anyone who saw the smile on her face could tell that she was having a great time stomping around in the woods with her dad. Memories are being made that will be cherished for a lifetime.<\/span><\/p>\n Looking at that picture, I had this unrequited yearning. It seems like a million years ago, and it seems like yesterday when my son and I took hikes every Sunday, during the autumn and winter, in the forests near our home.<\/span><\/p>\n If I could save time in a bottle\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n When this kind of yearning wells up inside, I can\u2019t wish it away, I can\u2019t turn a blind eye to it, I can\u2019t pretend it\u2019s nothing. This yearning is a bittersweet feeling, but it is also a feeling of helplessness. I can\u2019t go back. You can\u2019t save those moments. I can\u2019t put those times in a bottle and save them up for the future. You cannot relive those times again. I can never be what I once was.<\/span><\/p>\n So many days I\u2019ve spent doing things with my two boys from coaching baseball, to attending school plays, watching football and sharing a pizza, hiking in a brightly colored forest on a crisp, cool, clear October day, or stomping through knee-high snow on cold and blustery winter day\u2026 and now all I have left are the memories. I can\u2019t go back and I can\u2019t ever feel those feelings quite the same way ever again.<\/span><\/p>\n If I could save time in a bottle\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n I have photographs in boxes, and color slides, and even a cassette tape of my youngest son\u2019s voice pre- and post-tonsillectomy. My son is singing \u201cDaddy\u2019s Whiskers\u201d. I have photographs of my sons\u2019 baseball games, our hikes together, high school graduations \u2013 photographs now in shoeboxes, old photo albums, computers, and smartphones\u2013 all are just images printed on paper or now digital ones. They are all images of moments frozen forever in time.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201c\u2026Faded photographs, covered now with lines and creases<\/em><\/span> It\u2019s an uncomfortable feeling knowing that I can\u2019t go back. I can\u2019t change what has happened. I can\u2019t make bad things better, and I can\u2019t bring good times back. Time is a river that can\u2019t be dammed and flows in one direction only.<\/span><\/p>\n Memories can be comforting, and they also can be disturbing reminders that I am where I am on the river of life, and I am either where I wanted to be or not. It would be wonderful to go back and spend a day in the woods with each of my sons when they were boys. Yet, I know that even if I could, those moments would never be the same as the ones I remember.<\/span><\/p>\n For me, the river of life keeps flowing faster and faster \u2013 and the closer I get to the end of the river, the faster the water flows. The ride gets harder as the rapids get wilder and the water becomes more menacing. But I can\u2019t turn back. This river flows only one way.<\/span><\/p>\n We all travel the same river. The rich, the poor, the good, the great, the weak, the humble, the powerful, the bold, the brave, the fearful, the bad, the evil, the sick, the healthy, the maimed, the handicapped, the beautiful, the ugly, the ordinary, the exceptional, the white, the black, the yellow, the red, the brown \u2013 all of us travel the same river and none of us can turn around and paddle against the current. Not one of us can stop the swift flow of the river of life.<\/span><\/p>\n We can\u2019t save time in a bottle.<\/span><\/p>\n My son sent me a photo of my granddaughter on her \u201chike\u201d in the woods with her daddy. And I was touched to know that something I used to share with my son, my son now shares with his daughter. I know that I may not have done a lot of things right, but there is one thing I did right that was important in the life of my son, and in turn, I will be important in the life of my granddaughter.<\/span><\/p>\n When I received the picture by email, I wrote my son:<\/span><\/p>\n Enjoy these times. They fade away so fast. I can remember our Sunday afternoons together. It seems like yesterday and it seems like a million years ago as well.<\/span><\/p>\n It\u2019s too bad there isn\u2019t any way to savor and save the best moments of our lives. Somehow, looking back at old pictures only makes me sad now.<\/span><\/p>\n Every moment you have with your daughter is precious and I know you know that. The things you do with her today she\u2019ll do with her own children, just like you\u2019re doing the things with her now that we once did together. Thank you for that. It makes me feel good to know that those times mean as much to you as theydo to me.<\/span><\/p>\n And always remember this: The best memories are not planned, they just happen. And I\u2019m very glad you\u2019re giving them plenty of opportunities to happen.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Maybe it\u2019s just me. Maybe memories make others happy, too. Memories don\u2019t make me sad exactly, they make me yearn, they make me remember, and they remind me that I can never go back. The river of life is flowing faster and faster and fast. I\u2019m helpless to change the river, and I can\u2019t paddle upstream.<\/span><\/p>\n Memories remind me that I can\u2019t ever go back and relive the best and happiest moments of my life.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n If we’re lucky, we get old – lucky we didn’t die before our time.\u00a0 The longer we live, the mor memories we have.\u00a0 All of a sudden, one day we wake up and we’re old and we realize that memories are just about all we have left\u2026 and memories are all that we are.<\/span><\/p>\n Through our memories, we can relive the best times of our lives, but how I wish I could have saved all those special times in a bottle<\/span>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" If I Could Save Time in a Bottle \u201cIf I could save time in a bottle The first thing that I\u2019d like to do Is to save every day till eternity passes away Just to spend them with you\u2026\u201d (Jim Croce) The other day, my youngest son sent me a picture of my granddaughter taking a hike\u2026 Read More »<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26737,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[228],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30306"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30306"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30306\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30307,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30306\/revisions\/30307"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26737"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n The first thing that I\u2019d like to do<\/em><\/span>
\n Is to save every day till eternity passes away<\/em><\/span>
\n Just to spend them with you\u2026\u201d (Jim Croce)<\/em><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\nTickets torn in half, memories in bits and pieces\u2026 \u201d (Classics IV \u201cTraces\u201d)<\/em><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n