Tick Tock

I’m pulling down my Facebook page today. My personal page, that is; my author page must stay up so readers can find me. It’s part of doing business in the tech age. Thankfully I like connecting with my readers. It’s the human touch of the writing experience—one of the best parts.

I have nothing against FB. I love FB. But I can hear this tick tock, tick tock in my head, and it grows louder every day. It’s marking the passage of time, and it’s telling me that life is short and I’m dribbling too much of mine through my fingers, lost forever like water spilled on the ground, never to be reclaimed. Sitting in front of the computer (like I am right now), checking my two FB pages, checking my Amazon reviews, checking my CreateSpace sales, checking my Kindle Direct downloads, writing yet another blog, reading yet another blog—is this what life is? Note that I do all of these chores alone. They don’t involve another person.

I’m going out on a limb now—may the reader interpret what I’m about to say in the spirit that I say it—but I lost my 18-year-old son in a car accident on Valentine’s Day this year, and in that one, heart-shattering minute the tick tock ratcheted up to a cannot-be-ignored clanging in my head. Life is short! Life is short! Use each day for something worthwhile, something that makes life better for someone else. Serve. Give. Love. Use time wisely. Life, after all, is made up of minutes. Minutes. We get so few, and neither of us know exactly how few. All we know is that we have one right now. How will we spend it?

Do any of my FB posts really matter, anyway? Whom do they serve? Do my posts feed the hungry? Clothe the naked? Comfort the sick and oppressed? Give hope to the incarcerated?

Tick tock.