A quote: “Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you.” ~~ Carl Sandburg
I’ll start with a story …
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We were students with more ambition than sense or cash, days traipsing about Europe by thumb, nights in hostels. She was art history. Me? World literature. And both of us oblivious to shaky future careers.
When did I fall in love? The day we ran out of pocket change and lunch was a day-old baguette and one apple. Sad? Never! We then nicked a couple of bikes and rode in wild abandon.
65 years and I still see that same laughing face, as I smooth her hair, tuck the blanket around her cold shoulders, and kiss her one last goodbye.
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Now, it’s your turn.
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. featured image, cropped, Adobe stock photo, standard license.
Charles N. Steele says: “You have five minutes.”
I nod as usual. I think this time I’ll skip the cigarette and just gulp the last cup of coffee. It’s a bit cool, but I’m grateful for it.
The technique always works, but only for short jumps, and against the stream. If only I’d been able to perfect it before the arrest.
The coffee is cool, but I savor it and smile.
“One minute.”
I again give my prayer of thanks and ask forgiveness as the hood is fitted over my head. I jump.
“You have five minutes.”
Greg J. Micek says: It was funny. Although she was speaking to a crowd, formed from the remnants of a tragic event, spontaneously, passionately, regarding the events that had just transpired, I was struck, not by her intensity, but by her ignoring the disability of her blindness. It was as if she was living in an alternative universe, where sight was not an obstacle to her sensory awareness of her reality. Even though I was born without the ability to hear, I felt her words deep inside me. She agreed to have coffee with me, a connection. The rest, as they say, is history.
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