Time flies …

32 Replies

This week at the Carrot Ranch, Charli Mills challenged writers to In 99 words (no more, no less), write a story about a swift passage. You can take inspiration from any source. Who is going where and why. What makes it swift? Go where the prompt leads!

I think life itself is a quick passage. Time flies, as “they” say, quoting Virgil.

It is often also said, quoting George Bernard Shaw, that time is wasted on the young.

It’s only wasted because they have so much of it, they don’t know what to do with it. I wish they could save it up and use it when they get older and don’t have enough. I know I never have enough and wish I’d been able to save more of it for these rainy days.

Why is it that a day in a child’s life can be so looooong, and a year in an (older) adult’s life can be so short?

That’s where Charli’s prompt took me. I hope you enjoy it.

Regardless

“How long does it take to get old, Grandma?”

“Not long enough, Mickey. Never long enough.”

She’d once thought anyone over fifty was old, that it’d take infinity to get there. Now she well exceeded that number. She didn’t feel older, just creaked louder.

“My birthday takes too long. I want it now.”

“It’ll come soon enough, Mickey. Then another, and another. Soon you’ll be counting as many years as me.”

“That’s too long, Grandma.”

“When you get to my age, Mickey, you’ll see how short life is. Time doesn’t only fly when you’re having fun, it flies regardless.”

Thank you blog post

Thank you for reading. I appreciate your feedback. Please share your thoughts.

32 thoughts on “Time flies …”

  1. Hugh W. Roberts

    Life is like a toilet roll. The nearer you get to the end, the quicker it runs out.

    As a child, I wanted a piggy bank where I could save time. Even then, time fascinated me, Norah. Shame I lost that piggy bank and the time in it. I hope whoever found it, made good use of the time I’d saved up.

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply ↓
  2. Jules

    Indeed, time flies regardless. Doesn’t matter if you celebrate them or not. The day comes and you get older, sometimes it does seem faster. I remember when I was a child wanting to let folks know that I was X and 1/2 That extra half year made all the difference – then! 😀

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply ↓
    1. Norah Post author

      I know what you mean, Jules. I can remember my son telling an aunt of mine that he was almost ten when he was ‘only’ 9 and 5 months. Now I like to think I’m only a little more than half a century, though I’m getting dangerously close to halfway between that and a century, I won’t be changing my tune for a while. 😉🤣

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply ↓
  3. roughwighting

    So much truth in this!! And I do remember how sllllloooooowwwww each day was when I was young. I was so bored! And now? Each day flies like a flash of lightening. Sigh. I’m with Grandma. 🙂 GREAT 99 words, Norah.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply ↓

  6. Pingback: Swift Passage « Carrot Ranch Literary Community

  7. D. Avery @shiftnshake

    That’s a wise Granma.
    As far as the time problem, well it is true that the older we get the less we have. It’s a ratio and proportion problem. If you are five years old one year is 1/5 or 20% of your life. That’s a large amount. If you are fifty that same year is 1/50 or 2%, a small amount, so it would go faster….
    Right?

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply ↓
    1. Norah Post author

      Thanks, Anne. That line was the truth for me.
      Your post sounds interesting. I wonder if we’ll agree with the assessment of the young authors when we reach the age they are writing about. I wonder will they.
      (p.s. I spotted an identical comment in spam. Thanks for your persistence.)

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply ↓
  11. petespringerauthor

    I agree with Robbie’s comment. Life goes faster the older I get. I knew this is only what it seems like. This last year was an exception to the rule. What a long year!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply ↓
    1. Norah Post author

      I think the year probably feels different for you in the States where the virus is still raging. At first I felt time for me stood still but rushed by even quicker outside. It was a confusing situation. Even though we couldn’t do the things we normally did, the clocks didn’t stop ticking (I use that figuratively as most clocks don’t tick any more.) I was talking with my daughter this afternoon and realised that it had been 18 months since I’d visited her. It seems such a long time. Fortunately she has made a few brief visits here. I look forward to when we can visit again with confidence.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply ↓
    1. Norah Post author

      Thanks, Charli. What I’d really like is more ahead of me. Whatever number there may (eventually) be, I know there will be fewer ahead than there are behind. And they went mighty fast!

      Like

      Reply ↓

I appreciate your feedback. Please share your thoughts.

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.