We had to go through my great uncles things after he died. As was not uncommon for men of his generation, he had a sizable collection of pocket knives. We went through them one by one, passing them around the circle of assembled relatives. People who knew him better then I told stories about the knives they recognized. He had told them where he picked it up and which moment of his life that particular knife was connected to.

Eventually, we came to a knife we all greed must have been his favorite. Not because of the story attached to it, in fact no one remembered seeing that knife before. Nor was it because it was gleaming and pristine. We knew it was his favorite because the blade was almost completely warn away.

No matter how fine the quality of the blade, if you use a knife, it has to be sharpened. The process of using and sharpening means that eventually the blade wares away. It reminded me that change is always happening. No matter what I do, everything wares away like the blade of my uncle's well loved knife. What I can do is choose how to spend the time I have been given. I choose to sharpen the blade of my life till it too wares away.