Then & Now: It’s time to say goodbye

THE GIFT of time is something we should treasure and be thankful for each morning when we wake up to a new day. Rich and poor are equal, and all allocated the same amount of time to spend during our pathway through life. It is all about time and life, with some of my favourite pieces, in this column with material sourced and acknowledged where known.

A reading from the Book of Ecclesiastes is one of the most popular readings at Funeral Masses as it describes the deceased lifetimes as follows:

There is a season for everything, a time for every occupation under heaven,
A time for giving birth, a time for dying;
A time for planting, a time for uprooting what has been planted,
A time for knocking down, a time for building,
A time for tears, a time for laughter,
A time for mourning, a time for dancing,
A time for searching, a time for losing,
A time for keeping, a time for throwing away,
A time for tearing, a time for sewing,
A time for keeping silent, a time for speaking,
A time for loving and a time for peace,
God has made everything suitable for its time.

The Gift of Time (unknown)
Take time to think, it is the source of power,
Take time to play, it is the secret of perpetual youth,
Take time to read, it is the fountain of wisdom,
Take time to work, it is the price of success,
Take time to give, it is too short a day to be selfish,
Take time to pray, it is the greatest power on earth,
Take time to love, it is the music of the soul.

LIFE is what you make it is an old saying and circumstances often dictate how our lives journey through life.

There are two things to aim for in life, first to get what you want and after that to enjoy it. Only the wisest and luckiest of us achieve the latter. We can spend much time regretting what we have not got, and not enough time enjoying what we have. The old saying ‘The grass is always greener on the other side’ doesn't always ring true. People go looking for things they never find. They think they'll find them in some far off land only to find they have left them behind when they left home.

Learn to make the most of life and lose no happy day as time will not bring back again the chances that passed away. We should carefully guard our tongues as we live from day to day because we can make or mar a life with the careless words we say. In this life we cannot do great things, but we can do small things with great love.

The Clock of Life (unknown)
The clock of life is wound but once, and no one has the power
To know when those hands will stop, at late or early hour,
To lose one's wealth is loss enough, to lose one's health is more,
But to lose one's soul is such a loss that nothing can restore.
So, learn to love, to laugh, to live, and labour with a will,
Give no thought for tomorrow, for those hands may then be still.

The French entertainer, the great Maurice Chevalier, was a man with a great zest for work and for life who, in his eighties, was still travelling across the world with his famous one-man show.

Asked once about the secret of his vitality and his love for life he said, ‘Yesterday is to learn from; today is to live in; tomorrow is to plan for.’ Who wouldn't enjoy life with a three day philosophy like that?

The Dash by Linda Ellis
I read of a man who stood to speak at the funeral of a friend
He referred to the dates on his casket from beginning to the end
He noted that first came the date of his birth, and spoke of the following date with tears
But he said what mattered most of all was the dash between those years
For that dash represents all the time that he spent alive on earth
And now, only those who loved him know what that little line is worth
For it matters not, how much we own, the cars, the house, the cash
What matters is how we live and love and how we spend our dash
So, think about this long and hard, are there things you would like to change?
For you never know how much time is left that can still be rearranged
If we could just slow down enough to consider what is true and real
And always try to understand the way other people feel
And be less quick to anger and show appreciation more
And love the people in our lives like we have never loved before
If we treat each other with respect and more often wear a smile
Remembering that this special dash might only last a little while
So, when your eulogy is being read, with your life's actions to rehash
Would you be proud of the things they say, about how you spent your dash.

THE first Then and Now column was published on March 8, 2014, and 10 years on this is number 500. My thanks to Alan English the then editor for giving me the opportunity to share my views with the readers on so many subjects in the intervening years. A previous column, Odds and Ends, the work of Mainchin Seoighe (Mannix Joyce in the English form) ran from 1944 to 2002.

My column was on similar lines as it was important to highlight this area of news which he covered so well for so long. Thanks also to his successors Eugene Phelan, Donn O'Sullivan and Aine Fitzgerald for continuing with the column.
My gratitude to Charles Prashaw who each week prepared the column for publishing and added a photograph to make it more appealing.

The 10 years have flown by, and many changes have taken place in our county and worldwide, many for the better, but balanced by losses in our values and traditions.

We have come through a lengthy recession and the Covid-19 epidemic, and now face climate change, drug availability, the IT intelligence challenge and fake news.

Newspapers face their own challenges in the future, but readers still want to read about their own people, places and events in a local weekly newspaper. Continued success to the Limerick Leader - 135 years onwards since it was first published in 1889.

I enjoyed compiling the column and I hope you, the readers, enjoyed some of my observations. Thanks to all the readers who contacted me with their views which was appreciated.

The years have caught up with me, and like the words of the song sung by Sarah Brightman, it's time to say goodbye.