My Grandfather’s Broken Watch
August 2, 2012 – 4:28 pmMy grandfather always wore a broken watch whenever I would see him. Whenever he wound it, the hands would spin like a roulette wheel flying by, and then stop dead uncoiled. He’d smile, and we’d go about the day, around the farm hands in the dirt, or in the garage head under the hood. He felt so enigmatic to me, and suddenly, he was gone and nothing felt clear.
After his funeral, my mother gave me a small box of his possessions, and in it was the watch. Immediately grabbing it, my mother smirked, “Oh, that was the thing he treasured most.” looking at her bewildered, she read my confused expression, and continued, “He used to tell me that he had kept that since the Great War where it had broken. Wanting to get home to his family, he’d wind it, and it’d spin out and stop. He said it reminded him to not waste any moment, because our most precious possession is time.”
When my son walks in to my office because he wants to play swords,
When my daughter comes in to tell me a story she’s written, or a song shed like to sing,
When my wife starts talking about anything at all, and when my dog places her head in my lap pleading for a game of chuck-it…
While I feel in a rush to finish multiple projects,
Make several very important phone calls,
Read through backlogged texts,
Open a glut of the day’s unread emails,
Make sure I’ve published my articles throughout all of my social media,
Get my third training session optimally timed with my macronutrients,
I STOP and remember my grandfather’s watch…
And step away from all of the perceived urgency of my day,
To spend it with my loved ones.
The hands of time are spinning wildly by…
Don’t miss a moment.
Very respectfully,
Scott Sonnon
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