shoe size – Jeff Maddox

Years wasted. Time spent and keep the change. It comes down to making the most of what you’re given and picking up a little extra a long the way. Search the seat cushions, ashtrays and the top of the dryer for whatever you’re short, because sometimes all we have is pocket change.

Blame it on Old Father Time for being cheap. He knows before the end of the week I’m going to be hitting him up for an advance to get me through another rough spot. Who knows, maybe this time I’ll be able to pay him back. How do we buy more time? We can’t. It’s all borrowed with no refunds or returns.

As we get older we find every minute has a price tag. To say “precious moments” might even be an understatement when it comes to the older we get. When our age and shoe size matched, time wasn’t a big deal. We had plenty and we didn’t care if we wasted it. Save it? Impossible. We burned through it like there was no tomorrow. Now, we wonder if there really is a tomorrow.

If there is one thing we need to do more of it would be to spend our time where it does the most good. Throwing our loose change in a can for a rainy day is great idea as long as that rainy day comes. What’s that old saying? You can’t take it with you, so spend your wealth with those who mean the most to you. Your time is the most valuable thing you have – not that fist full of coins from under the front seat of your car.

Spend your time doing the things that make you the happiest. Whether it’s watching, listening, participating or just being, in the end you don’t get to keep the change.

It’s the simple things. When you’re young, it’s all about toys and candy and getting out to ride your bike. Not complicated, not serious – just simple. We didn’t understand nor did we care that we were living a very simple life, and our sole purpose was to grow up. And we did – all too fast. We wanted to be bigger like those other kids and we tried real hard to act older than our shoe size, but it wasn’t to be. Just look in the candy case at Moore’s Market when we were kids and it proves my point. Wax mustaches, candy cigars and cigarettes were popular and besides, how ridiculous did we look? If we couldn’t be older, we would look older. Hey, we were kids – what did we know? That lasted for several years, and when we finally found out we were actually growing up, it was too late. We already did.

We have a way of losing sight of those simple things. We make it harder than it needs to be and we worry more than we really should. It didn’t bother us as kids, so why should it bother us as bigger kids? Each and every one of us would do it the same way if we could, so why don’t we? I need to get lost in my imagination more often and let my motorcycle take me back down the road to my youth. Our lives need to be filled with more sun and dirt while we chase each other through the tall grass. Laughter should always be close by and the wind should decide our direction. There really isn’t any reason to be home before it gets dark and who wants to go in the house anyway?

Life is serious enough without even trying. Our responsibilities outweigh the inner-child in each of us and it takes some of the fun out of wearing those wax mustaches we wore as kids. We grew up too fast and I surely don’t run as fast or as far as I did when my age and shoe size were the same. We tried so hard to act older back then and now I’m trying to feel younger than I do now. My heart is screaming for recess but my body is telling me “let’s think about this first.” After all, I had a two-pack a day candy cigarette habit.