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Make hay while the sun shines

Hay (grass mown and dried for fodder) can only be dried when there is enough sunshine. In other words, summer is the best time for drying and storing things. When you think about it later, summer will be over and it will be the rainy season. During the rainy season, nobody should think that they can dry straw. There is no way to dry straw during the rainy season.   That is not possible. Summer presents a great opportunity for us to make maximum use of the sunlight. So we should take advantage of the summer sunlight to the fullest extent possible. In short, there is a time for everything. Among the few free things, we get in this world is time. It doesn’t matter how much money we have, we can’t buy an extra hour.  No matter how much money you give, you will never be able to take back even a single second that you’ve wasted. That is the real meaning of making hay while the sun shines.

Nature has a plan

According to William Wordsworth, nature has a holy plan. Winter follows autumn and night follows day. When spring comes, it will be beautiful everywhere, the trees will bloom swarms of bees and butterflies will flutter from flower to flower gathering nectar. When spring is gone and winter arrives, there will not be as many colors and joy in the air, at least for months to come. If the bee misses this spring and does not gather nectar, its storehouse will remain empty. Therefore, we must make hay while the sun shines and we must take advantage of the sunshine while it lasts. It is impossible to make hay when the sky is overcast or when it is down pouring heavily. The only time we can make it is when it is sunny. It is only possible to strike the iron when it is hot. If the iron becomes cold, it will not budge no matter how hard you strike it. So we must act at the right time. If we do things at the wrong time, they won’t work. When things are put off, regrets will follow. At last, we may face nothing but misery and regrets when old age finally seizes us and we become invalid.

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There is a time for everything

Have you not heard our ancestors say there is a time to sow seeds, a time to plant, and a time to reap? It is important to do things at the right time.  Do not procrastinate thinking that you can do it later. When a child reaches the age of four or five, we enroll that child in school, and that is the best time to enroll. Would it be fair to say, I’ve been sending my child to school when he is ten? No, never. The child will be ridiculed in first grade if he or she is ten years. Studying every day what one has learned on the same day during one’s education is a habit that students should develop during their education. Some kids think they can study on the night before an exam if they put everything off. Finally, on the eve of the exam, they are worried about what to study and where to begin.

Procrastination is the great thief of time

The saying “make hay while the sun shines” does not only mean that all of your work should be completed at the right time, but also that you should not waste your time. Things should be done in the right manner at the right time. Procrastination is the great thief of time. We can’t buy time back with procrastination. Some people are always putting things off. Although we keep the motto “do it now” in front of us, we do not follow it. We tell ourselves that a little delay doesn’t matter and postpone. Then, it becomes a habit and we fail miserably in life. We are unable to pass well in examinations as students, we are unable to secure good placements, as adults we lag behind in the race, and finally, as we age and weaken, there is nothing we can do. We might wish for a second chance at life, but that’s just daydreaming again. The waste of time, regardless of how little it may be, causes destruction and ruin. Hence, it is important to understand the holy plan of nature and understand how time moves in order to adjust our actions and activities accordingly. Most of the time, we don’t realize this and if things go wrong, we blame fate or God. This is pointless because God helps people who help themselves. A number of things, including disease and natural disasters, also need our immediate attention.

The laws of nature are best understood by birds and animals

Birds and animals understand this principle (make hay while the sun shines) much better than humans do. In the summer months, bees collect honey to store in their hives. Honey is stored in beehives for the lean months when the bees are in need of it. When the cold conditions threaten, birds that are unable to cope with it migrate to sunny regions before winter begins. Many creatures, including frogs, migrate to better water habitats before the warm summer winds dry up their little pools. The only person who does not care much about this issue is a man because he thinks he can handle any contingency that may arise, so he postpones things and tries to make hay in the winter or during a monsoon. Sometimes you may say that we have enough technology to make hay even at night or in bad weather. Leave it for a while. 

If you want to know the value of time

We must value every moment of time we have. A student who failed a grade can tell us how much one year is worth. To understand the value of a month, we need to ask the mother of a premature baby. To understand the value of one hour, we must ask the lovers who are waiting to unite in marriage. If we want to know how valuable a minute is, we should ask someone who missed the train. If you want to know the value of one second, you have to ask the survivors of a big accident one second apart. If you want to know the value of a millisecond (The answer is yes to those who ask if there is such a time) ask a person who lost a gold medal in the Olympics.

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Everyone is given the same amount of time

Time is the same for everyone, no more, no less. There are exactly the same number of hours in a day that were allotted to Nelson Mandela, Abraham Lincoln, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, Coco Chanel, Anne Frank, Albert Einstein, and Thomas Alva Edison. There was no more time than ours for them to work for the good of this world. They made good use of the time they had, and that is how they succeeded. Everyone is given the same amount of time. So, we should never ever become accustomed to saying that we are short on time. Someone gets a week’s worth of value out of a year, while someone else gets a full year’s worth of value out of a week. Using our time effectively and efficiently will, however, assure success. Each of us is responsible for how we spend our time. An individual’s life span on this planet is comparatively short. It is therefore very important that everyone takes advantage of the time and opportunities available to achieve great things in life

Do not miss opportunities

Another meaning of “make hay while the sun shines” is not to miss opportunities. Based on a detailed analysis of various success stories in history, it becomes clear that the key mantra for accomplishment is utilizing time effectively and taking advantage of the ample opportunities available. In life, some people fall short just because they are waiting endlessly for better opportunities and, as a result, fail to notice the different opportunities that are knocking on their door at this particular moment. For someone to be successful, he must take advantage of the opportunities available to him, rather than waiting for better opportunities that may never come. Nothing in this world happens before or after time, everything happens in its own time.  Additionally, most things have a designated or scheduled time. There is no way to extend it beyond that time. We may lose a big opportunity if we don’t do the right thing at the right time. We should not give ourselves an opportunity to regret our failure to appreciate the importance of time in our lives once we have missed out on a big opportunity.

Conclusion

Thus, time is a great priceless treasure. Every morning we are granted twenty-four golden hours. All we need to do is manage the minutes, hours, and even seconds. The treasure is now ours and we can do whatever we like with it. We can either waste it or use it to create more treasures to make our lives beautiful and meaningful. We must learn to value our time and use it wisely. If we don’t respect time, it won’t respect us. Nothing on this planet is comparable to or replaceable with time as it is the most valuable thing on earth. We cannot get the time back once we have lost it. Time keeps moving forward in a forward direction. Unless we catch up with it, we will be left far behind. Therefore, we must prepare well in advance so that we can strike while the iron is hot.  It is important to remember that everything requires time to accomplish. Having no time means we actually have nothing. It’s rightly said that wasting time is the worst thing in this world since we miss out on playing our assigned positive roles on the world stage for which we have been sent into this world. So, Make hay while the sun shines.

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This Post Has 14 Comments

  1. Mariancy

    Informative and good. I have never thought of the explanation of this but when I go through this you made it simple in a way that everyone can get the meaning…

  2. Mariancy

    Really this article made me to think of the time I left unused and the opportunities that I missed intentionally and unintentionally.

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