“Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day”

— William Shakespeare

The transit of Venus has given us all a chance to reflect on the limited scope of our daily existence. This article on npr.org sums it up well,

“… there is far deeper and far more intimate reason why the Venus transit matters.

It’s all about time.

The next Venus transit will be in 2117. That is 105 years from now. It’s unlikely that anyone reading this today will still exist then. Think about that: The next time the orbits of Earth and Venus align just so to create a transit, the world will be entirely populated by an entirely unborn generation…. [snip]

It’s rare for us to get pulled over the narrow time horizons defining our lives. We struggle through the daily cycle of waking and work, looking to the longer cycle of weekends for some rest. On even longer time scales we make appointments or plan vacations months in advance. We may even think on yearlong cycles dreaming of that summer home we want to buy. But short of worrying about retirement (but not doing much about it), the time horizon of our lives never stretches further than a few years.”

“It’s all about time.” Yes, it is.

What is your timescale? Are you thinking beyond today? This weekend? This year? Are you looking further?

If you want to make a difference, it seems to me that today is a good day to start and the timescale to pick isn’t this week, this month, or even this year.

The timescale in which to make a difference is your life. The time to start is now. The way to start is to give some time away to help someone, with intent, everyday. Then see where that leads you. Perhaps the scale of your impact will grow with the timescale of your thought.

It’s entirely possible that when the next Venus transit comes along, an entirely new generation of people will look back at what you did in your life and say, “You made a difference.”

Today’s gift of time … Was a part of my last District 7 Toastmasters governor’s conference call tonight. It’s been a good year as Area Governor; a year in which I worked with some great people, looked a little farther and saw a little more of what is possible.