Written 4th of June by E.M. Nolbay

The first day of summer is fast approaching. I have seen 81 of them so I suppose I could say that this is the sunset of my life. Have you ever watched a sunset and noticed how the last few seconds before it disappears are the shortest? Like the words from the son, "where the sun comes up like thunder," it also goes down like lightning . . . and, it seems my sunset years are doing the same.

Where have all the summers gone; and the springs; the winters; and the falls? In our adolescent years, we look forward to manhood or womanhood, then to our twilight years when our children are grown and we can collect our social security, and after enjoying our grandchildren and, hopefully, our accumulated wealth, it's time to go.

Do we wish our lives away? Sometimes it seems that we do. We look forward to the next holiday, the next event, job, house, child, car wedding, and for some, the next million or what have you.

So what does it all mean? What should we who are witnessing the falling sun have learned or what could we have done better with our lives? Remember the old saying, "youth is wasted on the young?" This is not completely true. It can also be wasted on the not so young; the not young at all; and even on the old.

"Yes," I tell my children, "enjoy these moments, they are the best you'll eve have even when they're not so good."

There's a Jewish word, "kvell," which is hard to interpret into English. The closest I come to it is, beaming with pride and enjoyment. It's what we feel when we witness our children being honored by their peers, or when our grandchildren are named the best in what they do. I think the most fortunate of people are those who were able to kvell the most; who have enjoyed not only the lives of their offspring, but their own as well. I might even fall into that category and even if I didnít kvell as much as I'd have liked, at least I like to think I did and take solace for the times I have.

"Thank G-D for what you have and make the most of it," I tell anyone who'll listen. Remember the phrase, "I felt sorry for myself because I had no shoes, till I saw a man who had no feet." That is the attitude that wastes not the precious years that seem to fly by while we wait to see what's behind the next curve in the road of life.

Think positive; if you can kvell for others, why not for yourself? Enjoy each moment, for this is the first day in the rest of your life, and could be the last.

(c) 2000 Mopam Publications and E.M. Nolbay
Not to be copied or republished
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