Tonight, I'm reading a book I've read numerous times before. I enjoyed it each time, but I never really pondered why. I knew it was partially due to it being set during the Revolutionary War, but other than that, I just thought it was a good book. Written for teens, the first time I read Time Enough for Drums I think I was in the fourth grade. It's a sweet book, about a woman coming of age, and into her own, during the war. She has to step into a role that she wasn't prepared for, as her brothers join the war, and her mother's choices have dire consequences for the family. All the while, the phrase "there's time enough for drums" is repeated. How can the men go off to war, when it's so silent, where are the drums? A boy of fifteen frustrated he can't join the war. "There's time enough for drums." And when those drums do come, they change things forever. Thinking about this, I realized there is a great lesson to be learned. There is time. Time enough for relationships, and jobs, and babies, and college, and careers. Even as we want to rush off, or we want great declarations as we go.. there is time enough for that. It always seemed to me as if life was rushing past me, and I would try to grasp it, fighting tooth and nail to hold onto it. On the flip-side, it also felt as if I were being held back from accomplishing my dreams. Now I know. Now I understand the draw to this thought-provoking book. Life is neither too fast, nor too slow. Life just is. There is time enough for drums.
