Tuesday, March 21, 2017

An Unrecorded Appointment




Image result for images of a diary



As my custom was I checked my diary
I couldn’t bear to miss an appointment
So far so good it seemed to me,
To miss an appointment I clearly resent.

I went through it with a fine-tooth-comb
And itemized the entries in my mind,
No way I could have missed an entry there
So from that I mentally resigned.

I turned to attend to a daily task
When the diary called to me again,
What had I forgotten I began to wonder?
What was it I had failed to retain?

Have you ever had a nagging thought
Regarding something you were to do
But no matter how hard you tried to focus
That thing just won’t come into view?

If you have had such an experience
You would know what I went through
So like you would, I took up the diary
Hoping something there would provide a clue.

Image result for images for daily diary

I searched through the daily entries
And then turned to those for the week,
Next I tackled the monthly appointments
And then the process I was forced to repeat.

At the end of it all I was none the wiser
But there still was this nagging thought
That I had forgotten something important
And this left me quite distraught.

That daily task I had told you about
Was not so important anymore,
Whatever it was I couldn’t remember
In my mental space had come to the fore.

I went to the sofa and just sat there
Staring at the ceiling and all about
Hoping that something within my scope
Would help me to sort this matter out.

Appointments were entered immediately,
That is, as soon as I was informed
And would be checked every morning
For me this was the daily norm.

This had been my practice for many a year
And the same had served me well
But then I wondered what was it I had missed
And though hard I tried I couldn’t tell.

I reached for the remote to turn the radio on
Just as a matter of routine
For it was that time at which I tuned in
To the news around the local scene.

Image result for images of an obit


After the news were some household tips
Then next came the sobering obits
When I heard a name exactly like mine
And sincerely thought it was a slip.

Here I was listening to my own obit
When clearly I was not even dead,
You see the name was mine but not the obit
So that quickly cleared my head.

But it had cleared up another matter too
The matter of the unrecorded event
For in my diary there was no such entry
Of the appointment that most people resent.

I challenge you to check your diary
For that appointment’s date and time,
The most you would find is the space
But definitely no such entry of its kind.

For none of us knows the day or hour
When our sojourn on earth will end,
That knowledge is God’s and God’s alone
But it could be around the next bend.

One day I won’t be reading my obit
Or hearing it on the radio for that matter,
It won’t have been recorded in my diary
And I won’t be here for the chatter.

I would have kept that appointment
Though not recorded in my diary,
Absent from this life is to be present with Lord
Is the believer’s promise in eternity.

Tomorrow, God’s willing I’ll check my diary
Because as you now know that’s the norm,
However, if that’s my unrecorded appointment
Then you will be subsequently informed.

Stewart Russell (2017)

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