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A Fleeting Time: Marife Bacaltos-Tarrayo (An Article Published in The Paulinian Scribe)

The document discusses how time can be fleeting and an enemy if not used wisely. It tells the story of the author realizing this after their father passed away suddenly, leaving things the author wanted to do with them unfinished. It provides examples of political leaders like John F. Kennedy and Mahatma Gandhi who ran out of time to complete their plans before their deaths. The conclusion encourages the reader to make the most of their time each day by pursuing meaningful goals and spending time with loved ones, rather than putting things off until tomorrow which may never come.

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165 views2 pages

A Fleeting Time: Marife Bacaltos-Tarrayo (An Article Published in The Paulinian Scribe)

The document discusses how time can be fleeting and an enemy if not used wisely. It tells the story of the author realizing this after their father passed away suddenly, leaving things the author wanted to do with them unfinished. It provides examples of political leaders like John F. Kennedy and Mahatma Gandhi who ran out of time to complete their plans before their deaths. The conclusion encourages the reader to make the most of their time each day by pursuing meaningful goals and spending time with loved ones, rather than putting things off until tomorrow which may never come.

Uploaded by

nmdl123
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

A FLEETING TIME

Marife Bacaltos-Tarrayo
(An article published in the Paulinian Scribe)

“Don’t strew me with roses after I’m dead.

When Death claims the light of my brow,

No flowers of life will cheer me: instead

You may give me my roses now!”

-Thomas F. Healey

It wasn’t my grief and sorrow that devastated me when my father died, it was the thought
of losing him at a time when I still have so many things to do for him that kept on haunting me
until today.

I thought I had the luxury of time. I was supposed to interview tatay about his life so I could
start writing his biography. I was supposed to call that hospital in Manila to inquire about
artificial limbs for him so he could begin his physical therapy and start walking again. As usual, I
had to defer doing all these because i was busy. In my mind, there will always be tomorrow.

When tatay’s death came so suddenly, I realized that time was not on my side. The
tomorrow that I was hoping would come did not come at all. I realized how time could be so
fleeting, how it could be so unfriendly.

While it is true that time can be man’s best friend, it can also be his greatest enemy. Many
prominent political leaders who lived before us planned to provide better lives for their
constituents. They wanted to do more but they did not have the time. They died before they
could finish what they had to do. The then US President John F. Kennedy planned to overthrow
the Fidel Castro regime in Cuba and to establish a non-communist government friendly to the
Americans. He was assassinated before he could implement his plan.

Mahatma Gandhi of India also ran out of time. He was murdered before his passive
resistance movement which aimed to establish a “free India” that would create “Ramrajya”
(kingdom of God) for the Indians could be realized.
Kennedy and Gandhi are just two of those who lived fighting enemies they deemed to be
hindrances to their missions. Little did they know that their real enemy was “time”.

For many who prepare “to-do lists” that most of the time remains to be “lists” you should
realize that time does not stand still. All the good things that you want to do about your life or
other people’s lives should be done now or you will never have another chance to do them.
Earn that degree, write that book, climb that mountain, travel, read, take your parents to a
vacation, say I love you to them, smile a lot, walk, run, live do not just exist. Most of all do them
now do not wait until tomorrow for tomorrow may never come.

Let time be your friend by using it wisely, doing what you ought to do now and not waiting
until the next day or the next. Value your time by spending it on things that are worthwhile-
things that would certainly make you happy because they made other people happy. If you do
this, time will never be your enemy.

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