OK, I’ll go ahead and say it; Thanksgiving is eighty-three days away and there are only 110 shopping days left until Christmas. Let’s not forget Halloween…. it’s just fifty-six days out. I was staring at a calendar hanging on my wall recently and I could not believe it was already September. We are nine months into a twelve-month ride in 2025. For me to say time has flown by this year would be an understatement. This has been the fastest year of my life – without question – and looking back at the last eight months, all I see is a blur because time has moved so fast.

Unfortunately, the older I get, the quicker the years seem to zip by. I’ll be turning sixty-two in November, and at this high rate of speed, I’ll be seventy years old in about nine months. The speed of life is much faster than the speed of light.

I remember my mom telling me when I was a young child that she wanted to place a brick on my head to keep me from growing. That was roughly fifty-five years ago, today I have three grown children and grandkids, and I wish I could do the same. Just place a brick on their heads, stop time for a bit, and take it all in…absorb life’s incredible blessings at that moment.

The late/great Mac Davis wrote a hit song back in 1974 titled, “Stop and Smell the Roses.”

“Where you going in such a hurry
Don’t you think it’s time you realized
There’s a whole lot more to life than work and worry
The sweetest things in life are free
And there right before your eyes
You got to Stop and Smell the roses.

You’ve got to count your many blessings every day.

You’re gonna find your way to heaven is a rough and rocky road
If you don’t Stop and Smell the roses along the way.”

It’s a simple song with a simple reminder to slow down, take a breath, and count your many blessings. I do try to live my life with urgency, because the clock is ticking and there’s a lot more sand sitting in the bottom of my hourglass than at the spilling from top. The uncertain part is that none of us know for sure how much sand we have left. Life is short and time is wasting. If life is a road which we travel, then there’s a lot more road behind me than there is ahead of me. My final destination gets closer by the day, so kicking my dreams down the road for a better time is not an option. Urgency today or regret tomorrow.

The one line out of the Mac Davis song that speaks loudest for me is where it reads; “You got to count your many blessings every day.”

I know that if I just stop and count my blessings, life tastes better and I have a hard time finding something to complain about. Living gratefully may be the secret of happiness.

Life goes by fast, and yes it won’t be long before we are stuffing turkeys, our face, and stockings over the fireplace. Coming up is my favorite time of the year and there is so much to do. But even still, with all the eating, decorating, planning, and shopping that needs to be done over the next few months, I intend to stop and smell the roses along the way more than ever before. I have so much more to be grateful for today than I did a year ago. Simple math, the older I get, the more grateful I become. I am one lucky dude, luckier than most. I’m still here.

I have learned in my older age that when I slow down and connect with family and friends, my life is enriched beyond measure. Oh, I’m gonna live urgently, with purpose and intent, but I am not gonna do it without coming to a complete stop on occasion and taking Mac Davis’s advice.

That makes more sense than placing a brick on my head.

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Todd Howey is a columnist for BrownwoodNews.com whose articles appear on Fridays. Email comments to [email protected].