QuickWrite
yellow speed bump, 10 km slow
i roll over it, scared to jump
laughing and squealing
music and crying
ice cream truck turning the corner
chocolate fudge, creamy vanilla
hot dogs roasting on the BBQ
summer in the air
smooth and silky is the wind
on the surface of my skin
my face, my legs
grazing the tips of my fingers
my new blue blades bringing possibility
summer in my mouth
10 cent freezies from the corner store
sweat from the world of play
freedom
the memory of days gone by
erased by time, maturity, age
youthful joy gone without it

-- written for LLED 438

Here I go again with my bouts of nostalgia, my stubborn tendency to relive the past, and yearn for its appearance in the present. It was a simple quickwrite using a poetic structure my prof picked up somewhere. It started with us imagining a window, deciding where we were in relation to that window, what we saw, what we heard, smelled, touched, tasted. And of course, being a sucker for those days of yore, I can't help but write about summers past. The Orchard, Surrey. Where I spent most of my elementary summer days sailing on my rollerblades, jumping speedbumps like the girls in Mighty Ducks, playing street hockey like one of the boys, eyeing my crush with youthful excitement, eating freezies and drinking slurpees, having waterfights, shooting hoops. Man, was I active! Then you get older and life (and your metabolism) slows down. You don't have enough energy (or maybe money too) to do the things you used to do. Plus things change. You move houses, make new friends, get more responsibility, grow up. Before you know it, you're an adult, married, starting a new career and possibly a family of your own. Where is the time you thought you had to do what you always said you would before you get married, get a real job, settle down? Where are the friends who said you'd be "friends forever?" Where is truth in that old lie: "Nothing will change"?

The Bible couldn't be more right in saying that life is like vapor; all men are like grass and their glory like the flowers of the field. The grass withers and the flowers fall. We are transient beings, destined to remain on earth only for a short time. Our experiences are transient, lasting only long enough to be enjoyed, to take action, or to learn from. Each moment, each minute, is transient. The second it begins, it's gone. These moments I am taking to write this blog I can never take back. Is writing this that important that I have given up these moments in my transient life that will never be returned to me? I should ask myself that when I watch 3 hours of TV or waste countless hours on Facebook or Youtube or...complaining about how life is so transient. I already know that. Now what am I doing about it? That is the question. I often wonder how my life would be like if I wasn't a Christian. Hah, that is the test of to what degree I am living a life worthy of my calling. Being a Christian is living with active perspective on the present and eternity. When I use "active", I mean a perspective that drives one to take action with conviction that Christ is truth and the ultimate reality. Truth be told, I would probably be the same person but with a whole lot of questions and a sense of empty longing for something more. Either that or I'd be gloating in whatever accomplishments I think have made me me. I know I'd still be intensely philosophical about everything. But my philosophy would get me nowhere, and I believe that deep down inside I would know that life according to me is not all there is to it. I think I would be an extremely selfish and self-centered person. Not that I don't exhibit those traits now but Christ in me helps me to put to death my old self. I don't know to what conclusion I am trying to reach with this blog. I don't think I'm trying to get at any conclusion, save for the fact that I am thankful for God's love. Perhaps that is the conclusive reminder I need to hear. He gave me a memorable childhood, a blessed youth, and at present is molding me as an adult through experiences that I know, ten years from now, I will look back on in wonder and amazement at just how good God is to me.

So yes, theoretically nothing remains constant. Theologically, however, God is the same yesterday, today, and forever.