Colonel's Random Thoughts

The Moments I Wish I Could Keep Forever There are moments in life I would give almost anything to live again.  Not to change them. Not to make them better. Just to feel them once more: a voice I have not heard in years, a hand I once held, a laugh that filled a room, a face that meant home.  Perhaps that is why American singer-songwriter Jim Croce’s 1972 song "Time in a Bottle" has touched something deep within me. I will take a minute to narrate the tragedy of Jim. His story and the conception of the lyrics, makes this song even more priceless.  In 1971, Jim Croce, a Philadelphia native who struggled through multiple blue-collar jobs to support his singing and family, wrote the haunting melody and words for the classic “Time in a Bottle ” a chartbusting song when his wife Ingrid had informed him that she was pregnant with their unborn son, AJ - Adrian James. And l ess than two years later, Jim Croce’s life was tragically cut short by a plane crash at the age ...

The Currency of a Life At this stage of my life, I sometimes find myself looking backwards, not with regret, but with a strange sense of wonder. Sixty years have passed almost imperceptibly. I can still remember the boy I was, the uncomplicated happiness of childhood, the restless dreams of college, the urgency of beginning a career, the responsibilities of work, the arrival of marriage and family, and the years that followed, filled with duties, journeys, friendships, triumphs and disappointments. When I look back now, I realise something I could never have understood when I was young: we spend our entire lives exchanging time for things, without always asking whether the things are worth the time. That is why Haruki Murakami's words have stayed with me: “Spend your money on the things money can buy. Spend your time on the things money can’t buy.” As a child, I possessed very little money, yet somehow had an abundance of what I now recognise as priceless wealth: time. ...