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I spend some time thinking every once in a while. We all have the same lessons to learn. And when I learn them, I often forget that I am not the first person to figure this or that out. All I can claim is that I finally got it.

I’m gonna hitch a bit on a blog I wrote for another venue. Remember the dreaded “Grading on the Curve?” That infamous bell shaped curve that defines so many aspects of our lives? Here is one angle I was thinking of recently. Take your knowledge, your physical skills and your mental abilities and distribute them along the time line of your life. If you are somewhat normal and live the expected number of years, you’ll find that your skills and abilities will follow the curve. From birth to death, you are either increasing or decreasing.

Sure, there is a smooth spot at the top, and you may ride the crest for quite a while, but it really is either up or down. In the very beginning, you don’t even notice your progress, but you are assimilating experience and knowledge at an ever increasing and quite astonishing rate. I always think of my learning and my experience as measured by milestones. Do you remember when you first rode a two-wheeler by yourself? Your first kiss? Your High School graduation or your first driver’s license?

I have always been a bit short-sighted. When I graduated High School, I didn’t envision my College graduation. When I first rode my bike around the block, it never occurred to me to look forward to driving a car or riding a motorcycle. That first kiss? Didn’t ever imagine being married. At the wedding, becoming a parent was the farthest thing from my mind. Now that I’m a bit older, though my eyesight is getting worse, my vision seems to be improving. The lens of experience, I guess.

As I grew, I collected experience, knowledge and skill, bit by bit, one piece at a time. I eventually reached a zone of relative competence and have cruised there for a while. If you will envision a metaphor with me, picture walking up a rounded hill. In the beginning, the slope is gentle, but as we have just begun our walk, we are full of energy and enthusiasm encouraged by our very ignorance. As our ability to learn and do increases, so do the challenges. Farther up, perhaps the hill is less steep, but the air becomes more rarefied the higher we go and the going does get tougher. We approach the top, and buoyed by our work to this point, we can do what we must fairly easily. At the top, our tasks, though they still take time and energy, are almost effortless.

The surprise waits a little farther. Gradually things become even easier, but……is that because we are even better, or has the slope crested and started down? At first it may be hard to tell. We are full of ourselves, matured as human beans, competent to handle most situations and able to enjoy life and the fruits of our labors. However, the rock we stand upon, that bell curve full up with our skills and abilities, is diminishing. The area under the curve is becoming smaller and smaller.

Maybe the first thing we lose is just a step. Perhaps I can’t quite catch up with that fastball, or some motion I used to make routinely now elicits a twinge of discomfort. An injury may cause us to be a taste more cautious. A restricted back-swing knocks 50 yards off the drive. Perhaps every face doesn’t always have a name attached the way it used to, or, dare I say it, maybe I get just a little bit lost on a familiar road?

At some point you begin to realize that the walk is just a bit too easy; the slope is helping you to walk just a little bit more quickly than you really want to, and it takes effort to slow down. It’s like driving down a hill: at first it’s just enough to lift your foot from the accelerator, any steeper and you begin to use the brakes. (OK here my improved vision kicks in and I can picture myself sliding, on my back down an enormous slip n slide, arms and legs flailing wildly, grasping at anything to try and slow down.) Maybe somehow our equilibrium fails and instead of a nice smooth curve into the flat line (Ooh, there is an interesting and appropriate analogy!) we trip and simply fall off the hill, straight to the bottom, not to be confused with illness, injury or accident at an unfortunate moment dropping us to zero before our time.

Another way to look at the whole thing is this. We spend a bunch of time adding…adding skills, adding knowledge even gathering stuff. Then, one by one, things are taken away. In the end you will leave just as you arrived.

My point is this: when you receive a gift, appreciate it. Be it a gift of time, space, or love, treasure it….live in the moment and savor each precious tick of the clock. You never know which tick will be your last.