Link:
https://create.twu.ca/shaaz/2018/05/27/light-fom-many-lamps-the-most-precious-of-possessions/
Thank you so much for writing about this! I thoroughly enjoyed reading your post and completely agree with your points. I too loved this story about time being one of our most precious possessions! Similar to the video that you mention in your blog post, I also love this one entitled The Value of Time. I show it to my students every year and it also talks about time being like a bank account that credits you a fresh 86,400 seconds each day. However, every night you lose whatever time you didn’t invest and use wisely. 
It carries no balance and allows for no overdraft. You can’t draw from tomorrow and must live in the present. The end of the video is a poem by an unknown author that can be found in Sean Covey’s book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Teens (1998) that I also share with them entitled “The Value of Time”.
The Value of Time
To realize the value of ONE YEAR, ask a student who failed a grade.
To realize the value of ONE MONTH, ask a mother who gave birth to a premature baby.
To realize the value of ONE WEEK, ask the editor of a weekly newspaper.
To realize the value of ONE HOUR, ask the lovers who are waiting to meet.
To realize the value of ONE MINUTE, ask a person who missed the train.
To realize the value of ONE SECOND, ask a person who just avoided an accident.
To realize the value of ONE MILLISECOND, ask the person who won a silver medal in the Olympics.
This poem is a wonderful opportunity to bring people together while also talking about the importance of time. Students are able to make a lot of personal connections to this poem. For example, a student of mine last year could deeply relate to the value of time because his mom was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer and each second that he had with his mom was a gift of time that he preciously guarded. She passed away this summer and he wouldn’t trade those moments he spent with his mom for anything. Another student had an older sibling who had failed grade 12 and had to repeat the entire year and watch his friends graduate without him. My teaching partner the same year gave birth to her baby very prematurely and the kids knew the dangers of premature labour and prayed hard for her little one to be okay. The baby is now thriving! I also share with students my own experiences with time. Time was not on my side as I raced to try and get to the hospital before my Dad passed away, ending up arriving only just moments after he died and not being able to say goodbye and tell him that I loved him one more time. This always gets students thinking about the last time they told their parents/siblings that they loved them, thanked them or said sorry. We all take those words for granted thinking that we will have more time to say those things and we put them off for another day, another time due to pride, anger or ignorance. Time was also not on my Dad’s side as he waited for a lung transplant. I’ll never forget seeing his transplant pager sitting next to his bed in the hospital, a painful reminder that time waits for no man. As the poem suggests, everyone has a story to share when it comes to time, the joys and the struggles. Depending on where we are in our life story and in our journeys, each part of time means something different to us. Students learn to respect the real meaning of time not just for themselves but what it means to others as well.
What I tell my students and my kids is that I have learned to appreciate time like never before. Time truly is a blessing and a gift. I am grateful for each year, each month, each week, each day, each hour, each second and even milliseconds that God has granted me and my loved ones. I don’t take time for granted ever.
Thank you so much for posting about this, it is such a good reminder to all of us to reach out to those we care about and tell them what they mean to us, to fix the wrongs that we have made, to spend time with those we love. The clock is ticking… and time waits for no man. What are you going to do with your 86,400 seconds?
Thank you so much for your wonderful words and your deep interpretation of post left me speechless. These examples that you stated are all so precious. I remember having a conversation with my elder brother that our parents might not look old but they are getting older and we need to switch roles and start taking better care of them. It was a harsh realization but I’m glad I had that. I’ve been living away from home since past 5 years for education but I could see them on weekends. I’ve now moved to Canada and my brother has been in Canada for 3 years now and my parents are in India so it will not be possible for me or him to visit them that often. I make sure to call them every day and I keep telling them how much I love them and respect and adore them for being such amazing supportive parents. All this is so important to me because I can never thank them enough for raising me the way they did and turning me into the person I’m today. This is what I tell everyone else too, to take the time to do the smallest of things, making the call or sending a text to your siblings saying you miss them or thanking a friend for being there for you.
To answer your question, I’ll make sure my 86,400 seconds are productive and I’ll try to make each second count and mean something.
Thank you so much for asking this question.
Also, you are an amazing teacher!