Now is the time - the only time

Once upon a time there was an avatar named Jasmine Dae. She was a slave, not a sub, and she (fairly) patiently tried to make me see the difference. It was she who took me to Beauty, and although I barely knew her, asked for my collar that night. I do not take such things lightly and said let us talk about this first. When I was ready to offer, she had found another. So be it. We remained friends. And when she died in RL in early December, I was unprepared for how hard it hit me.

Her Mistress asked to be the one to eulogize her, so I did not mention Jasmine in the following piece, but she was foremost, though not alone in my thoughts as I wrote it. And I called upon the sadness of Jasmin’s passing a month later when Queen Allure died, although only in RP, fortunately.

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Now is the time…

The Winter Solstice is upon us now, the one day of the year when the rising sun creeps along the passage and illuminates the back wall of the chamber in the heart of New Grange. The day that marks the turning of the seasons, when winter’s icy grip begins to loosen in the slow crawl toward spring. A time of farewells. A time of new hope. Who among us can say with certainty when we rise in the morning that we will see another dawn? None that I know of. We can only hope. Hope that the things we do in our Nows are true to our self-image, may mean something to others, while we are here, after we are gone. Because Now is really the only time we have in which to do anything, to love or fight, to speak words of kindness or hate, to cause or try to ease another’s pain. We mere mortals cannot change the past, and the future may never arrive. Now is the time – the only time. The only time that matters. For any of us.

So next time you pass – or play with - a tribute or a Noble, remember that this is a real person, with hopes and dreams and cares much like your own, and just as with you, the only time they have is Now. Whether they crave your submission or you crave pain or domination, try to respect the reason the other is interacting with you in their Now. Honor that Now. Cherish it.

And as we creep toward spring and another, gentler solstice half a year from now, remember this: like ripples in a pool, the things we do, the choices we make, continue to spread and can touch others, sometimes long after the original action has been forgotten. People vanish from our lives in a variety of ways, often never knowing how much we valued their friendship, never knowing how their smile brightened our days, never having heard how much we cared about them. And all too often, when we come to such a realization, it is too late. Don’t let another day go by without telling those who are important to you just how you feel. Do it in the Now.

December 21, 2007