We would all like to believe that we will have enough time to do all the things we dream of before time runs out. In fact most people live as though they had all the time in the world. We are convinced, that the sun will always rise and that it will be there to greet us every morning, and that the dawn of each new day will give us another opportunity to fulfill our dreams and passions.

While it is true, that the sun will always rise and give birth to a new day, there are no guarantees that we will be around to greet the next new dawn. We often take time and life for granted, believing that we have an infinite amount of time. That is, until something opens our eyes and makes us realized that our time on earth is limited, and that we may not have as much time as we think we do. That is the moment, that we will change the way we view the time and the way we use our time, but even more importantly, it will change the choices we make. 

If you knew that you had only 24 to 48 hours to live, how would you live your life? Would you live it any differently? We want to believe that there is enough time to do all the things we would like to do, but what happens if time runs out, before that happens? That should be, a compelling reason to make us pause and rethink how we live and how we use our time. Life is full of uncertainties there are any number of things that can put an end to our dreams cut our lives short. 

The truth is, that we may not have as much time as we think we do. So the question we have to ask ourselves is, are we making the best and the most effective use of the time we have? Or are we throwing our lives away and wasting the precious time we have, trying to keep up with everyone else and trying to be like everyone else, chasing the allusive so called American dream?

Imagine this, the moment we are born, we are placed in a hour glass, where we will live out the rest of our lives. The hour glass represents our entire cycle of life, from the moment we open our eyes and take our first breath, until the moment we take our last breath. The sand, represents the seconds, the minutes, the hours, the days, the weeks, the months and the years of our life. The moment we are born, the grains of sand begin to fall from the top half of the hour glass into the bottom half. Once all the grains of sand have fallen to the bottom, that is the end of our life cycle.

Let me tell you a story about two mayflies, maybe it will help you understand just how precious and short life really is, and why it is essential that we make the best use of the time we have, before the last grain of sand falls to the bottom. Did you know that adult mayflies have some of the shortest life spans of all living creatures? Some may only live for 5 minutes once they reach adulthood, others may live for 24 hours. Once a mayflies egg is laid in the water it sinks to the bottom and attaches itself to an object, it normally hatches in two weeks or more varying on the species of mayflies. Some larva will live for two weeks or for two years. After it hatches, it will undergo many changes shedding its skin many times. Once it sheds it's last layer of larva( baby) skin for the final time, it will make it's way to the surface of the water where it will shed it's final layer of skin and it will then be an adult.

Once they reach adulthood, their life is nearly over. In some cases, their life span is only 5 minutes in other cases it is 24 hours. After they become adults, it is a frenzied desperate race to find a partner and have a family. They perform a courtship dance to attract a partner, once they find one, they pair up and begin their family. After they get together, the female mayfly lays her eggs and then she falls to surface of the water and lies motionless. The male flies off to die on land, and the cycle starts all over for the next generation of mayflies. Let me tell you the story of two mayflies who were very different from one another.

There were two mayflies, one was Tanya and the other was Alicia. Both of them knew that mayflies only live for a very short time. So the question was, how would they use that time?

Tanya, said since I only have one day to live, I'm not going to waste it having and rising a family, I'm going to have fun and enjoy my life. I'm going to cram and stuff as much fun and pleasure as I can in the next 24 hours. So she did just that, she didn't waste any time, she lived as though nothing mattered. She wasn't going to worry about the consequences, life was short and she was going go out with a bang. She lived every minute of her life would be filled with excitement and thrills, Tanya took many foolish risks and chances. She lived as though she didn't have a care in the world. She lived a very selfish and self-centered life that focused on getting and taking what she wanted no matter what the cost or who she had to hurt or step on  to get what she wanted.

Running out of time

Tanya lived her life fast and loose and woe to anyone that dared to get in her way or that stood between her and whatever she had set her heart on. One day she went out for a thrill and a rush flying very low carelessly and recklessly above the surface of the water without a care in the world not paying attention, a large fish came along and leap out of the water and caught her in it's mouth and swallowed her whole. 

While she was being slowly digested in the belly of the fish  she had time to think about her very short life and how it had abruptly came to a very sad and tragic end. She lived every minute of her very short life as if nothing mattered and in the end, she had nothing to show for her life, she had no family, no legacy, no accomplishments, it was almost as if she had never been born. She had wasted her entire life, she never made a single meaningful, significant contribution in the world, it was as if she never existed, she lived without purpose and meaning, no one would miss her, no one would even notice that she was gone, no one would even care, no one would  mourn her or cry for her, in the end, her life was empty, shallow and lonely.

Now there was another mayfly named Alicia. Her life was the complete opposite of Tanya's. She also knew that the life of mayfly is very short and brief, she knew that didn't have months and years to do and accomplish the same things that took other creatures many, many years to do. She only had 24 hours, so she would have to try and cram an entire lifetime into the next 24 hours.

Unlike Tanya, Alicia wanted to try and make the best use of the time she had. She wanted to use the short life she was blessed with to do something good, something positive, that would make a difference, she wanted her life to mean something, to count for something.

That way, even long after she was gone, she would continue to touch and inspire the mayflies that came after her. Her legacy would continue to live on, she  Life is She would pass on her legacy to her children and their children. Her life would not have been wasted, she understood that life is a  previous gift and sooner or later her  would not have been in vain would, she would have something to show for her life, her life would have meaning, her life would not have been vain, she was not going to throw it away chasing unrealistic dreams and illusions that leave your heart empty, dissatisfied, unhappy, unfulfilled and miserable in the end. on selfish, meaningless empty,        She was not going to spend her brief life chasing illusions and fantasies, or chasing the wind.  She knew that it doesn't matter how long or how short your life is, it's how, you live and what you do with your life that counts.

Alicia could choose to live a life full of selfishness and pleasure choosing to satisfy

her own wants and desires, at the expense of everyone and everything around her, like Tanya did, ignoring everyone else's , 

How, we will use those precious, seconds, minutes, hours and days before the last grain of sand falls to the bottom? Most of us plan out our lives and our future long in advance, we set goals for ourselves, what we hope to accomplish in life. We have certain dreams, passions and desires that we hope to fulfill one day. But no matter how much preparation and the planning we do, we are not in the driver's seat...time is.

We may want to think we are in control of our lives, but we are not, time is. Almost every part of our lives is controlled by time. Our lives are measured in days, weeks and years. We are in a race against time, life is a race or a marathon, we get to the starting line, the announcer yells; On your mark, ready, set, go and we are off, hurdling toward the finish line. 

We spend our entire lives watching the clock. Time influences and drives everything we do in life.