July has brought with it another birthday. Perhaps because I have a July birthday – midway point in any given year – I always tend to approach it as I do New Year’s Day…time to set some new goals and make plans for the “year” ahead. But whether it is a calendar year or another year in the life, the enthusiasm wanes a month or so down the road and I kick back into the life that Thoreau called “quiet desperation”.

“The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation,

and go to the grave with the song still in them.” Henry David Thoreau

My life seems neither “quiet” or “desperate” but yet it is moving ahead ever so swiftly.  I blinked and my year-long pass for the local gym had expired without much trekking through its doors.  Then, as excited as I was for a local history museum pass that I received for my birthday last year, I found us entering July again without returning since last summer. Our summer “Kids Bowl Free” pass is about to expire.  I paid $25 to make it a family pass.  We have yet to bowl this summer.    I cannot seem to slow down time, and I know that is an impossible dream, but how can I make more of the days that come and go so swiftly?

A 25th wedding anniversary is on the horizon.  I am seemingly blindsided by this.  I am hardpressed to make plans.

Turning 50 was easy.

Turning 51…not so much.

As I looked up various people’s interpretation of Thoreau’s words above, the consensus seems to be that oh so many live lives short of their potential.

I feel it.

Do you?

If so, I will challenge you…

run with me…

run as the apostle Paul once said…