Exploring my neighbourhood I was curious regarding exactly how long it would take me to walk to the main street taking the shortest distance possible from my home. I used the Stopwatch feature on my iPhone so that I would be precise with this acquired knowledge. I have experienced this feature before, typically when doing planks at the end of my workout as I attempt to meet specific time oriented goals. This time fixated feature measures the duration of the activity to the hundredth of a second – YES, I need to know that – well maybe not to that granularity! Yet as I was walking onward and intermittently glancing down at my phone I became mesmerized by the rapidity of the fractions of seconds literally ticking away and I thought of life – my life. We can never get those fractions of seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months and years back. So what are we doing with the ever so valuable, indeterminate amount of finite time remaining?

I suppose that as one becomes eligible for the senior’s discount at a national drug store chain and refuses the savings, or when I asked the public transit bus driver the other day what the cash fare is and her response was, “you mean the seniors cost” and I get facetiously offended, I ought to read the writing on the wall … we don’t have forever in this physical form we know as life. I vividly recall at age twenty taking the opportunity of parachuting with my mortality not even remotely in question, but walking to a local independent coffee shop in my fifties brings me to an entirely different temporal contemplation by merely observing a stopwatch.

So is there anything that you desire to do before it is too late? Of course there is – we all have our “bucket-list” of sorts. But with that morning’s walk and the visual of hundredths of seconds accelerating by, I intuited new meaning and fulfilment regarding a momentous event in my life – the upcoming launch of my book.

The idea percolated in my mind to write this story about seven years ago (although it profoundly changed by the time it was completed); in fact I told friends for many of those ensuing years that I was writing a book and I am not sure neither they nor I actually believed it would ever come to fruition. There were a few people along the way who provided immeasurable support, guidance and encouragement yet I never made it over the finish line and often doubted I would. But one got me there, my remarkable editor Lindsay R. Allison. She pushed me forward with timelines and deadlines that were not without personal challenges – thankfully I kept to her direction. It worked for me, it might not work for everyone. So to Lindsay, I have much gratitude and love.

When Walls Become Bridges  in ebook format is currently available for pre-sale on Amazon and Smashwords – the paperback version will be available for pre-sale in a few weeks with the official release date of October 16, 2017. So it is happening!

Which brings me back to – does time stand still or not? What does that mean to you? While time may appear to stand still in a moment of euphoric bliss or emotional agony, I see the clock as forever ticking away despite truly being in the present moment, which I now attempt to embrace always. All I know is that I am still dreaming of things I want to do and accomplish. There is nothing wrong with living your dreams. Do what you love. Be with those you love. Keep dreaming.

My dreams have only yet begun …