Time

            Time is quite fascinating. The span of merely an hour can feel like nothing more than a moment when in good company – or like an eternity when in pain. There always seems to be too much of it when it’s unwanted, and yet not enough when it’s truly needed. Gollum, a character from J. R. R.  Tolkien’s The Hobbit, presented this riddle in hopes of getting to eat poor little Bilbo Baggins.

This thing all things devours:

Birds, beasts, trees, flowers;

Gnaws iron, bites steel;

Grinds hard stones to meal;

Slays king, ruins town,

And beats high mountain down.

"Mist & Noctilucent clouds" by Mikko Lagerstedt

            There are few things in this world that can withstand the test of time truly unscathed. In my Geology class, we discussed geologic time a few weeks ago—and it is simply fascinating. The mountains, canyons, lakes, hills, valleys—all these amazing parts of nature that we see every day took thousands upon thousands of years to form. We think of many of them as being static and unchanging, but mountains come and go just as anything else does. It’s only a matter of time. It is often difficult for us to fathom such things, processes that can take hundreds of millions of years, since the average person doesn’t live much past 80 or 90. It’s nearly mind-boggling for someone that’s hardly experienced 100 years to fathom 100 million years.

            The lifelong pursuit of many has been to create or build something that will withstand the test of time—some through literature, artwork, inventions, or revolutionary new ideas. I’ll admit it, for the longest time there has been something that I’ve wanted to make that will indeed withstand the test of time—something more solid and immovable than the mountains. This upcoming Friday, I’ll get to do it too. I’m going to be getting married to the love of my life, my best friend—I’ll be starting my very own ‘happily ever after’. This marriage is going to be special though—not a simple “Till death to you part”. No, we will be sealed together for time and all eternity.

            Yes, I know, eternity is a long time, and it’s not going to be an easy thing by any stretch of the imagination. But you know what? I wouldn’t have it any other way—I won’t be alone for it all. I would much rather face an eternity with someone by my side to share it all with, the good and the bad.

            As of right now, the wedding is 4 Days, 3 Hours, 21 minutes and 25 seconds away, and then that whole time thing comes up again. We’ve been engaged for about three months now, and though at the beginning of the three months it seemed we had an eternity before we were to be married, it’s all flown by so fast it’s hard to grasp. Now the days are down to single digits, and time seems to have stopped. It’s only a few days away, but it still seems so far off. Funny how time works like that, isn’t it?


Image from https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-h-9xrTXQDgw/ToG3oLO_u5I/AAAAAAAAECc/NFoSzhwIsFM/s950/mistnotctilucent.jpg