This week has been one of those weeks where the totality of the brevity of life hit me like a ton of bricks. Oh, sure, I saw one more wrinkle that wasn’t there yesterday and my hair (the stuff that seems to be disappearing a little more every day) is bound and determined to turn gray.  But that’s not what I’m talking about.

As I was preparing my recent interview with Days of Our Lives Executive Producer, Ken Corday, for publication, I began reflecting on the “30-Something” class reunion for which I have been serving on the planning committee.  It will take place in September and it seems like only yesterday we had all just received our high school diplomas. 

Those diplomas represented the beginning of the rest of our lives - a future that held nothing but promise and endless possibilities.  We felt – scratch that – we KNEW that we could, and would, do anything we set our minds to. We also felt that we would live forever.

They say that 10 year reunions are the worst because everyone is trying to present an image that is bigger and better than they really are and the 20 year reunions aren’t much different.  However, with the 30 year, “30-Something” and all other subsequent reunions, people seem to just know that it’s not about stuff and status but about relationships and quality of life.  It’s about just being glad to see that one’s old friends are still around and fondly remember those who have already passed away. It's all about a full and better appreciation of life and those people who have been a part of it.

As I was mulling all of this over in my mind, I received news that, coincidentally, brought the meaning of that phrase into even sharper focus the meaning of the phrase that has been repeated at the beginning of each and every episode of Days Of Our Lives: “Like sands through the hourglass . . . so are the days of our lives.”

The news was not good.  My 82-year-old aunt learned that she has stage-4 leukemia.  As I processed the news and began thinking of, and praying for, my aunt, I thought of how fast she must have felt her life had gone by. How it must seem like yesterday that she was graduating from high school or bringing her oldest son home from the hospital for the first time. And now it comes to this.

It’s always upsetting when we face the eminent loss of someone we love.  It reminds us of how precious life really is.  It also should remind us that, regardless of our age, we can still make our life count and have a positive impact on others.

There are only so many grains of sand in our hourglass and we can never stop their journey to the bottom of that glass. So are the days of our lives. Let’s make the most of each grain of sand.