Taking time

“Nobody sees a flower – really –

      it is so small it takes time –

      we haven’t time –

      and to see takes time,

      like to have a friend takes time.â€

                                                                                          Georgia O’Keefe

Time once stretched ahead in an endless ribbon promising bright possibility and opportunity.  There would always be time.  Time was on my side.

But the paths were never reversible, always one-way, continually bifurcated.  With each decision well reasoned or impetuous, other paths and the possibilities at the end of their tributaries were lost to me.          

Now that the path forward is much shorter than the path travelled,  I want to  understand time, the loss of it, the use of it, the tyranny of it. 

              What is it now that cannot wait another day?

                                                       A child? My Friend? Family? A sunset? A Flower?

Will I take the time?