What is a 'second" worth?

It is New Year's Eve 2008. And sometime before MIDNIGHT there will be added a 'leap second' to the clock! When young, my parents asked all of us to write a letter to ourselves. to leave it on his desk, and he would hide them for one year, to be delivered to us on New Year's Eve... I have just finished the letter for 2009, and have enveloped it and sealed... I am sitting here on the 12th floor of the towers gazing out upon the city of Melbourne, FL

i am remembering this night through the years...when Heather and Jennifer would make up menus for Phyllis and I, and they served as waitresses at our New Year's eve Party and we allowed them to stay to watch Times Square at midnight...now, the only thing that wakes us, here at the Towers at New Year's eve, is our bladders, or the bottle of metamucil...

On New Year's Eve 1992, Phyllis and I decided that the New Year could not be worse than 1992 when so many friends had died...It was at 1am when I was called, as Chaplain at the Vineyard Hospital, to respond to a family in crisis...Little did I realize as I kissed Phyllis and wished her a Happy New Year what our lives would experience in the New Year...Upon arriving at the Emergency Room I found a chaotic scene as I was told there had been a fire, and a young mother had been burnt to death...I didn't know what to say...someone asked me in the wee morning hours if it was better to know what was about to happen?

I said, that if we knew, our lives would be lived in such a way as to prevent, rather than to enjoy the moments that we had together...As I sit here with the pain from a recent stroke throbbing on my left side, I would not dare prophesy what is going to happen in 2009.. Rather, as I await the unlimited possibilities of a New Year, I ask God to bless my family, and friends, and help me to enjoy each moment of the journey...Without an end, there can be no beginning...