Furuya Sensei posted this to his Daily Message on November 29, 2004.
It is hard for me to believe that Thanksgiving is over and we are racing towards Christmas and the New Year soon after. Every year seems to move faster and faster for me. Is it just that we have made ourselves so busy? Is time really flying away faster? I hardly have time to waste any time!
Time is precious and there is so much to do for my students and so much more to pass on to them. Yet, my time is limited with them and I can only see them a few minutes each time when they come to the dojo. My energies grow less and less as I get older. I finally, I always wonder to myself, “When can I get some rest for myself? When can I start to take care of myself?"
I suppose I can drop everything and start right now - but I am thinking too much about my students and the dojo - how can I?
When a person gets older, they begin to see how short Life really is and how little time they have to do what they want to do. Please take my word for it and get off your duff right now and begin to do what you’ve always wanted to do. Time waits for no one. Young people today always think there is a "tomorrow," but, in reality, we only get a few "tomorrows" and that is it!
Live in the present, be in the present, do in the present. This is the best advice I can offer.
Kouinyanogotoshi (光陰矢のごとし) or “time flies like an arrow,” and like an arrow, it never comes back.