Stories: Homeword

A Total of 525,948 Minutes

As usual, I am in a hurry. Between my morning preparations – brushing my teeth, tying the laces of my shoes, clipping my cell phone to my belt – I glance at the hands on my watch to see the minutes click by. I run to beat the next click and make it out the door. Minute by minute, time challenges me to a race, and everyday, I square up in the blocks to run again.

I love Legos. I spent hours playing with them as a boy. In those days, the boxes of the brightly colored plastic squares and rectangles only offered suggestions for creations. To me, the boxes were treasure chests filled with pieces taking the shape and dimension of every kind.

I built architectural masterpieces and crafted speedster vehicles that rolled along Lego roads.

I concocted robot shaped monsters who marched through buildings built with walls of Legos. Trees of green Legos spread out along the horizon as Lego men marched toward adventures fueled by long afternoons.

Minutes are the building blocks of life. They stack upon each other moving horizontally or reaching high one on top of the other to shape a lifetime.

It is amazing the milestones that occur each year. But actually, milestones do not occur in a year. Years are broken down to the hour, and then the milestones occur in the minute.

Eighteen years ago, I noticed what at first could have been overlooked. But the deep, throbbing pain brought an unsettled feeling in the pit of my stomach. The progressive swelling and visible discoloration prompted me to call our family’s doctor. After a quick examination, the doctor sent Kathy and I to meet with a specialist. Before the afternoon slipped into early evening, we sat waiting for Dr. Meek to enter his office. The clock’s second hand measured the minutes.

The diagnosis was cancer. In an instant, my life changed and would never be the same. I began in that minute a journey traveling with scores of others who describe themselves as “survivors.”

The July 4th celebration had come and gone with the usual fanfare – fireworks, grilled hotdogs and red, delicious, cold watermelon. The days of summer returned to a sweltering monotony. Life was ebbing along predictably until interrupted instantly by the ringing of a telephone.

PawPaw was being rushed by ambulance to the hospital. When Kathy and I arrived, he was in the emergency room attended by doctors who worked to bring him back to us. We watched as the hour began to be marked by the minutes as the last beep from the heart monitor signaled the moment of his passing.

Time doesn’t stop when life’s hard times come along. But life is worth living because of the potential joy each minute brings.

Kathy and I are moving into the group of couples who can say they have been married a long time. And as most people who have been at something for a long time would attest, it seems like time has flown by – until we look back and break down the years to the months, days and. . . minutes.

1. . .9:45 p.m. – Our first kiss.
2. . .10:35 a.m. – Said “I do.”
3. . .6:28 p.m. – First child is born.
4. . .9:24 a.m. – Earned my college degree.
5. . .10:09 a.m. – Second child is born.
6. . .4:30 p.m. – Bought our first home.
7. . .5:05 p.m. – Third child is born.
8. . .8:16 a.m. – Fourth child is born.
9. . .11:15 a.m. – Moved to North Carolina.
10. . .2:22 p.m. – First child marries.
11. . .5:12 p.m. – Moved to our lake home.
12. . .1:48 p.m. – Dipped toes in the Pacific.

When you count it all up, there are twenty-four hours or 1,440 minutes in a day. There are, on average, 30 days or 43,200 minutes in a month. A year is comprised of 12 months or 365 days totaling 525,948 minutes.

Individual lives interlock to create landscapes filled with joys and challenges. Minutes build upon minutes to shape a lifetime. Minute by minute, a lifetime expands to include the lives of others.

Taken all together, life is worth every minute!

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