The evenings seem to roll around quickly. The sun sets on a frozen lake, almost mirror-like in presence.   It is a vibrant reminder of the light of day now concluding with waterfowl flying in formation.  The nights are cold and sometimes snowy, leaving a chilly imprint as day turns into night.

I am grateful to come home to a warm house, a good meal, and the company of my wife.  Others are not so fortunate.

However, at times there is a mundane feel as each day seems to merge into another, then another, and another – like waves crashing upon the shoreline, only to return again moments later constantly signaling the rhythm of the moment.

The sound in my mind says “ho-hum, ho-hum, ho-hum”.

Instead of waiting for an early February calendar date to mark the arrival of a fuzzy little creature named Punxsutawney Phil, I seem to live my own version of Groundhog Day.  The image conjured up is same old, same old.

Should this be so?

After all, we are taught to number our days that we may gain the heart of wisdom.

Christmas Eve marked my fifty-sixth birthday.  I have to remind myself to appreciate the milestone of yet another year lived, another circular mark on the trunk of my tree.

My wife surprised me with an E-Reader, again I am grateful.  I decided to enter the twenty-first century and give this E-reading technology a try.

What is my world coming to?

I like the touch and feel of a good book.  Some habits are hard to break!

Books are a love of mine and in a sense, tools used in the hands of a master carpenter to sincerely change my life over a number of years.

The written word has been used to shave off the rough edges, while turning me over and over and over on the lathe of becoming a better version of myself.  Slowly, but surely, the power of words have been distilled and deposited into my heart and mind making their mark.

I decided to make my first purchase on my Kindle Fire HD, a fabulous book called 20,000 Days and Counting, by Robert D. Smith.

The promo on his website states:

Most people measure their lives in years.

But how would our thought process change if we measured our lives in days?                 

The bottom line premise, number your days!

Reading this book, even though I have thought about the point many times before, crystallized the fact – we are given so much time to play our song!

I have a spreadsheet somewhere that distills years into months into weeks into days into hours into minutes and finally into seconds, since my birth.  Go figure, math nerd me!

The problem, I don’t pay attention to it.  Or better yet, I don’t pay attention to the impact of what the numbers are telling me!

Out of sight, out of mind!

No longer!

No way, Jose!

Wake up time!

Time to number my days and make them count!

I sincerely desire to live to the ripe young age of one hundred years.  I have been praying along those lines. Assuming this prayerful conclusion, you all are invited to the party someone will throw on my behalf!

• I need to use my time wisely.
• I want to make my life count.
• I want to live a life filled with purpose.
• The list goes on and on – you get the picture. 

Robert supplies a simple calculator to determine the number of days since one’s birth.  I took the challenge.

As of this writing, I have lived 20,464 days.  Holy cats!

I urge you to take the momentary plunge and determine how many days you have lived this far.

The number will astonish you.  It may make you ponder what the inside of you is silently saying.

Thoughts will arise like:

• Have I made the most of my time?
• Why have I squandered a valuable resource?
• How can I make a change?”

I would encourage you to get the book. 

I am not being paid to recommend it to you (although that would be nice!).

However, do yourself a favor (book or no book) and count your days.  Make the most of them.

In thinking of this, how can numbering your days help you make the most of the time you have?