The Oldest Story in the World

It’s the oldest story in the world. One day you’re 17 planning for someday. And then quietly and without you ever really noticing someday is today and then someday is yesterday and this is your life.” ~ Nathan Scott, One Tree Hill

The oldest story in the world indeed.

And the funny thing is that it is still being told. And it always starts like this-

You think you have forever.

And then one day you wake up and realise that forever had turned to “for never”.

And that there was really nothing but now.

But you’re no longer 17 years old. Your now is now 70 years old (Don’t get me wrong. There’s nothing wrong with being 70. That, in itself, is a lifetime achievement)

And now you’re 70 and you are surrounded by the ghosts of all the promises you made yourself all those years ago.

And you look back on your life and wonder where all the time went

That’s the mistake that we make.

The mistake of thinking that time went somewhere. But time does not go anywhere.

It has been here since the beginning and it will be here until the end of the world.

It is infinite and so it cannot be wasted.

Humans, however are finite. Youth is finite.

We can waste ourselves. We do waste away, our potential fading away until all that is left is a shell of the person that we were meant to be.

A shell of all the promises we made.

We don’t waste time. We waste the beauty of youth.

I guess that’s what they mean when they say that the beauty of youth is wasted on the young.

I hope 2018  was a youth fulfilling year for all of us and the New Year brings nothing but light and the fulfilment of all our promises.

Yours sincerely,

Anonymously AfroIrish

PS I know it’s been a while. And this is much too short.

I haven’t blogged as much as I would have liked this year. And for a while I was worried. I was worried that my creative juices had stopped flowing and that I was a failure who couldn’t do what she loved anymore.

But now I see that I have been creative in other ways. I have painted more than ever, I challenged myself a little. I even acted in a stage production.

But most importantly, I have laughed, cried and lived.

I spent so much time lamenting over the passage of time but now I know that I should indeed be lamenting the passage of youth.

Youth is all we have. And all we have is now.