Another Day Down the Drain
Don’t Squander Your Time
Time’s a wastin’
To-day is thine to spend, but not to-morrow; Counting on morrows breedeth bankrupt sorrow: O squander not this breath that Heaven hath lent thee; Make not too sure another breath to borrow. Omar Khayyam
Another day wasted. Nothing accomplished toward your goals. Another day gone forever. We think we will do it when we have more time or when we are in the right situation or when we are inspired, but Omar Khayyam warns us not to count on tomorrow.
The fleeting passage of time is a major theme in the Rubaiyat.
Khayyam tells us:
Come, fill the Cup, and in the Fire of Spring The Winter Garment of Repentance fling: The Bird of Time has but a little way To flutter — and the Bird is on the Wing.
My father will be 96 years old this month. You might think that, at his age, he would be ready to go, but he is not. He has said how quickly his life has passed. He recognizes that his time could end at any time, but he hopes to live to be 100 and he just might do it.
The impermanence of life should motivate us to do more with the time we have on this earth. Rather than wasting it away, we should search for meaning and joy in life. We should make the most of the time we have. Omar Khayyam was well aware of the fleeting quality of time.
The Rubaiyat begins with a scene at dawn in a tavern. A voice in the tavern cries out:
Dreaming when Dawn’s Left Hand was in the Sky I heard a voice within the Tavern cry, “Awake, my Little ones, and fill the Cup Before Life’s Liquor in its Cup be dry.” And, as the Cock crew, those who stood before The Tavern shouted — “Open then the Door! You know how little while we have to stay, And, once departed, may return no more.”
They heeded the voice and recognized that they must use the time allotted them. For decades I have felt compelled to write a book or books and yet years have passed and I have not accomplished this goal. Thinking of Khayyam today, I realized that I must open the door and do something because I, like everyone, have only a little while to stay, only a little while to accomplish my goals.
I tell myself I must write now. If I don’t do something now. If not now, then when? Tomorrow is not promised. And the chances we have today will never come again. I must stop waiting for the right time and do it now.
Khayyam says:
Living Life Tomorrow’s fate, though thou be wise, Thou canst not tell nor yet surmise; Pass, therefore, not today in vain, For it will never come again.
In this time of Covid and so many deaths, we should vow anew to make our lives matter, to accomplish our goals, to do something. We go through life thinking that one day we will be able to follow our dreams, that one day everything will be just right, and then we will do the things we’ve dreamed of doing.
Yet day follows day, and we are no closer to accomplishing our goals. From the time I first met my husband, I encouraged him to write his life story because he’s had an interesting and unusual life. He always answers that he will do it one day when he has peace. Thirty years have passed and he apparently is still waiting for when he has peace.
I cannot say much about this either because I, too, have not done what I told myself I would do. I have two unfinished novels and a history book I should write based upon my dissertation, and yet years have passed and these things are still undone.
Khayyam continually reminds us to make the most of every day because there are no second chances. He says:
“Drink wine and look at the moon and think of all the civilisations the moon has seen passing by.”
How many people has the moon seen who, like us, have planned to do something important “one day,” and yet they, like us, never fulfilled that goal, that dream, that desire to do something that would last? How many of us promise ourselves that one day we will do whatever it is we feel compelled to do? And yet that one day never comes. How many unwritten songs, unwritten novels, undiscovered cures, unpainted or unsculpted works of art have never been produced because their creators kept thinking that “one day” they would do it?
We shouldn’t wait until we are ready to kick the bucket to fulfill our bucket list. We should start today.
Do one thing today that moves you toward your goal.
P.S. I am very fond of ancient Persian philosophers as you will see if you check out two of my other stories based upon the wisdom of the ancients:
Wisdom from Muhammad ibn Zakariya al-Razi, Persian philosopher
