“Sadness flies away on the wings of time.”

– Jean de La Fontaine

Sadness is such a heavy thing.  It can make our legs feel like lead when we try to move through our day.  It can cause our heart to feel like a stone that presses down on our chest and makes it difficult to breathe.  It can even weigh down the corners of our mouth and steal a smile as soon as it comes close to our lips.  When we are deeply sad, it is next to impossible to consider that we ever could send away the weight that we carry with us wherever we go.  Sadness has no wings.  It has no legs.  It begs to be carried.

Time, on the other hand, flies.  We all know that.  How often have we been involved in something really exciting or enjoyable only to look up at the clock and see that it must come to an end?  Time does have wings.  It cannot be tied down; and no matter how we try, we can’t seem to hold onto even an extra minute.

I have daily chats with my father.  He can tell you about the wings of time and how quickly they seem to fly.  Dad is 89 years old.  Sometimes our conversations revolve around some sadness or distress of the day.  I hear him weighed down, derailed, or even upended by the process of adjusting to being nearly ninety.  He carries the burdens of the day diligently; and when I listen to him I can’t help but wonder whether we become accustomed to needing a burden in order to feel alive.  ”You don’t need to be upset,” I tell him.  ”You can choose to be happy;” but most days my words fall on deaf ears.  Perhaps it is the lot of a generation who were taught to be dutiful in facing a difficult life.  Perhaps I will discover that one day I will also have difficulty accepting the limitations placed on me my old age.  What I do know is that sadness is temporary.

What lasts is the joy.  Some of the best chats my Dad and I have are about his memories of the old days.  Indeed, the sadness that was part of those days has flown away on the wings of time.  ”I was thinking…your mother and I could go back to our old house.  We had such great times there.  I know we could manage.  All we would need is a few groceries and some help with our pills.”  Gone are the hard times they shared in that house.  Gone are the heartaches of raising a family.  Gone is the realistic view that would show him the changes that have taken place in the place he once called home.  Gone are the old friends who shared their good times.  Many things fly away on the wings of time; but when we remember the love and the joy, we know that there are lasting things in each day we live — things that cannot be spirited off by minutes and hours and days and years.  They live in our hearts, anchored there by what is real — anchored there by love.

If you are sad today, lift your burden as high as you can and watch time spread its wings to carry it away.  Hold onto only what is lasting and real.  Hold onto the love.