A decade in a minute

It's been 10 years since Diana was killed in a car crash in Paris. That was quick!

What has happened in that time?

George W. Bush has been elected President - twice

Bill Clinton, Bush's predecessor, faced impeachment for lying to Congress, but got off with an apology. Now he's on the verge of being back in the White House - as the first man!

The World Trade Center was destroyed. The man responsible for ordering the attack - Osama Bin Laden - is alive and dying somewhere in the mountains of either Afghanistan or Pakistan - at least that's what the experts say.

We have gone to war in Iraq - again. This time it was no easy victory; this time we are stuck in a quagmire that is draining our treasury and has cost more than 3500 American lives so far.

On a personal note, I have gotten married to the most wonderful woman in the world. We will celebrate our eighth anniversary next month.

I still work at VOA.

I have gotten a Masters Degree in Practical Theology from Regent University.

I still play music, but not in church anymore. Not for a while; too much foolishness and sloppiness for my tastes.

I have been traveling the world a lot - to Greece, to Bermuda, to Canada, to the Cayman Islands and the Bahamas, to Belize, to the Netherlands Antilles, to Brazil, Japan, and Mexico.

Cornelia - my wife - and I have changed churches twice. Still looking for that "home."

I moved from a townhouse to a single family home. From no yard to a third of an acre - and have learned how to plant things and make them grow.

And the gray in my hair has increased.

The 10 years went by in a blink. Now I understand what people mean when they say that life is a handbreadth or a whisper. I know that sounds old, but man the time went by like nothing. It pays to live every day to the fullest.

Lord help us to live the kind of lives we will wish we had lived when it comes out time to die.