Reds and blues and yellows go round
In a dizzying sight and a blurring sound.
It’s a far-off place in a distant land,
And this here juggler is a one-man band.

He stands on the edge of a busy street
In the rain and sun, in the cold and heat—
Waiting for the traffic light to turn to red
And the cars to stop as if though dead.

Then he springs into action to perform his dance,
Whirling and twirling in a hypnotic trance.
Then just before the light turns green,
He jumps and he bows from the juggling scene.

And before all the cars can drive on their way,
He rushes between them to collect his pay.
For the successful street juggler must get one thing right—
He must learn the secret of timing the light.

Now for the moral of the juggling man:
Your life has a purpose; your life has a plan.
Opportunities come, but they won’t last;
Learn to seize them ere they’ve passed.

For the juggler still juggling as the cars drive away
Missed his moment to collect his pay.
So learn to act when the time is right—
Learn the secret of timing the light.

---

“Make a call, make a call, make a call!” said the person waving the cell phone in my face.  Before I could recover from the jarring sales pitch came the next person in line, “Paper, paper, paper!”  Then it was cookies, then toys, then fruit; then it was a pamphlet from a local preacher.  As abruptly as it all started, it was over.  This was some of my first experiences with street sellers and public transportation as I began a church mission in the country of Panama.  Only the worst part is, I had no idea what any of these people were actually saying!  All I knew is that they were screaming at me and waving things in my face.  How long did they say this mission thing was going to last?!

Street sellers and performers were new things for me.  As buses would come to bus stops or traffic lights, performers and sellers would jump on and try to sale their goods.  Then at the next stop they would jump off and move to another bus.  Sometimes they would wait at a traffic light to sell or perform for stopped cars and people crossing the streets.  Performers had to be particularly skillful because they had to perform an act but still leave time to collect money before the light turned green and the cars and buses drove away. 

One of my brothers served a mission to Bahia Blanca in Argentina and experienced the same thing.  He tells the story of one street performer: the actor’s show went too long and the light turned green before he finished.  Not only is that dangerous, but the performer missed out on making money.  My brother recounted this story and likened it to our lives.  We all have time allotted to us in which we must act.  We should not, as Jacob says, “[waste] the days of [our] probation” (2 Ne 9:27) but should be “anxiously engaged in a good cause” (D&C 58:27) and take advantage of the opportunities that come to us—because opportunities rarely last.

So get going, before your time is up!

Written: July 3, 2016