In Time

In time my joints will ache as the first clouds assemble long before raindrops begin to fall.  In time my muscles will shrink and my strength will diminish.  In time my mind and body will slow, the years taking their terrible toll on something that was once vibrant, athletic, and potent.  In time I will regret what I did in my youth, as my body fails me.

In time my passion will diminish, my love for hard work and training slowly leaving me day by day, stealing my youth with them.  In time my iron will will be broken, as a rock erodes, crumbled through the repeated crashing of the surf.

In time I will know the pain of love and loss, as I watch one soul after another enter and part from my life.  In time I will be a lonesome man, jagged and frustrated with the world.

In time I will know the stress of a career.  In time I will have to provide for a family.  In time my soul will be crushed by the relentless onslaught of responsibility and reality that inevitably comes for every man. 

In time I will look back on football and weightlifting with longing, a simpler and better time in my life that can never be duplicated again.  In time, work, family, and exhaustion will force me to leave everything I once loved behind.  In time it will be impossible for me to hold onto the passion that I cultivated as a young man; strong, vital, fearless. 

In time my youthful dreams will be nothing more than fantasies, as I’m forced to embark on a career of moderate success to pay for a minivan and support my mundane lifestyle.  In time I will dream of what could have been.

In time I will become just like everyone else, as I succumb to the destiny of living a life I never wanted.

They tell me in time all of these things will happen.  They tell me in time I’ll see.

But that time is not today.  So while those people wallow in their misery and warn others of impending doom, I will live with passion, strength, and an indomitable will.  I will fight like hell for everything I desire and believe in, with no apprehension or fear for what the future holds. 

While so many live lives of trepidation, perpetually scared of what time will bring them, I will embrace the opportunity, for time is only an enemy if you allow it to be.