It seems like kind of an oxymoron doesn't it? A dream come true? To be able to turn the clocks back. It's something that makes all of us wonder about the 'what ifs'? What if I had pursued a different career or chosen a different course of study in college? Where would I be now? What if I had moved to California or become a missionary? What would life be like? What if I had the courage to teach myself to be a better swimmer and had done a triathlon? Or if I actually wrote the book I have thought about for years? Some might wish they could erase the wrinkles and the gray hair. For me, the truth is there is not a lot I would change about my own life but I guess it's a natural question to ask. What would life be like if we could turn the clocks back and do it all over again.
Today is the end of Daylight Savings Time. We will turn our clocks back one hour tonight. Makes me wonder how in the world the concept of Daylight Savings Time was ever started. Isn't that kind of messing with the laws of nature just a little? Would it be stretching it too far to say it was messing with the law of God? Afterall, He is the One who created the times and the seasons.Who in the world thought of this and how did they convince the entire western world to go along with it? A quick google search on the subject told me that Ben Franklin preferred to take advantage of every hour of daylight. He actually suggested that a cannon be used every morning at sunrise to rouse the townspeople from their beds.
Does anyone actually change the clocks at 2 am? Let's face it, most just do it before going to bed on Saturday night, or go around the house changing all the clocks when they wake up on Sunday morning. It usually takes me a few days, or weeks to get around to changing all of them. You know how it is, by the time you get around to the back bedroom that no one uses anymore, and take out the owners manual to help you remember how to change the clock in the car, sometimes weeks have passed. Who has time to bother with all that? Last spring I actually had to buy a new watch because I finally gave up trying to figure out how to change the time. (This was not a simple watch....)
Year after year we turn our clocks back in the fall and push them ahead in the spring. I always have to say to myself, "Spring ahead. Fall back." in order to remember which is which. Many people look at the time change in reference to sleep. "I gain an hour of sleep" or "I lose an hour of sleep". Personally, I prefer to look at it another way. Of course I like to sleep, but I would rather do it when it is dark. I prefer to be up before the sunrise in order to enjoy the best part of the day for as long as possible. Fritz was always the exact opposite. We used to joke that if he stayed up just a little longer, and I could get up just a little earlier we could meet in the middle and enjoy some time together. That was back in the days when he was always staying up late working on writing papers for seminary classes. We were always so busy trying to get our kids, or someone else's teenage kids here, there, and everywhere we seldom got much time together during 'normal business hours'.Technically I guess the 'sleepers' are right since the change takes place during hours that most people are sleeping.
Cinderella would have loved Daylight Savings Time. She would not have had to rush out of the Ball like she did and could have spent another hour dancing with her handsome prince. Maybe if she had that extra hour she would not have lost her glass slipper as she ran out the door and down the steps to her coach. But of course that would mean the prince had no way to find her again. I think Cinderella's Ball must have been about this time of year. Her coach was made from a pumpkin, and was driven by a team of mice. Maybe it was Halloween. Wouldn't she have been happy to find out at midnight that she gets an extra hour with her prince and did not have to rush away before her dress turned back to rags.
I enjoy thinking about what I will do with the extra hour I will get once a year. I think of it as a special treat. A gift from God. Many times I plan to spend my hour reading if I have a book that I am enjoying. Some years I have chosen to bake some banana bread or other yummy treat for my sleeping children. Sometimes I have planned to go running when I normally wouldn't have had time. Whatever I end up doing with my hour of time, I am grateful to God. Each day of our life is a gift from Him but the hour that only comes once a year is a good time to remember how special the gift of life is.
This year I find myself wishing, as Cinderella did, that the clock could go back and I would have one more hour with my handsome prince. That I could stay in those moments beside his bed. Cherishing every minute, every breath, every heartbeat. Listening carefully to every word he had to say. Comforted by the time that we had together. Thanking God for his life.
