Dear Friend,
My friend Donna told me this joke recently:
A man was praying and asked, "God, how long is a million years to you?"
God replied, "Oh, about a second."
Then the man asked, "God, how much is a million dollars to you?"
God replied, "About a penny."
So the man then asked, "Well God, may I have a penny?"
And God said, "Sure, just a second."
I wrote today on the blog about how the passing of time and how much it had hit me this past week as Brett and I had the chance to salvage some items from an old house that was going to be bulldozed. As we wandered around the home I noticed things: a panic button by where the bed would have been, long metal handles strategically around the bathroom, an array of vintage glasses left behind. The home had been a home to two families in the past and both had moved on from old age. I wonder if their lives went by in an instant. A million years in a second.
Sometimes I need things like an old house to be a reminder of how quickly time goes by. I need a reminder to not waste one second of life on things that aren't meaningful. And that's a broad category for me: sometimes naps are meaningful, or a day of movie watching, or even raking leaves. It's all relative.
I shared this quote from my friend Tahnie last week and if I had a plane I'd fly it around on a banner:
It is a beautiful thing to have hope.
it is a fabulous things to believe in the future.
However, I don't ever want to cling to tightly to tomorrow that I forget to cherish and embrace this exact minute.
Today is a miracle, for everything it is right now.
Today is a miracle. And it's almost gone. A million years can pass in a second. Grab every second that you can.
Love,
Ashley
P.S. If you've received this letter secondhand, you can leave your email address here to receive my weekly letters.
