Time
is our companion that goes with us in our journey. It reminds us to cherish
each moment, because it will never come again. What we leave behind is
not as important as how we have lived. We
will find as we look back upon our life that the moments when we have
truly lived are the moments when we have done things in the spirit of
love. We
cannot go back and create a new beginning but we can begin today to
create a new end like what the person did in the following story of an
unknown author.
I
was shuffling toward the basement with a
steaming cup of coffee in one hand and the
morning paper in the other. What began as a
typical Saturday morning, turned into one of
those lessons that life seems to hand you
from time to time. Let me tell you about it.
I turned the dial up into the phone portion of
the band on my ham radio in order to listen to a
Saturday morning swap net. Along the way, I came
across an older sounding chap, with a tremendous
signal and a golden voice. You know the kind, he
sounded like he should be in the broadcasting
business. He was telling whomever he was
talking with something about "a thousand
marbles."
I was intrigued and stopped to listen to what he
had to say. "Well, Tom, it sure
sounds like you're busy with your
job. I'm sure
they pay you well but it's a shame you have to
be away from home and your family so much. Hard
to believe a young fellow should have to work
sixty or seventy hours a week to make ends
meet." He said.
"Too bad you missed your daughter's dance
recital. Let me tell you something Tom," He
continued. "Something that has helped me
keep a good perspective on my own
priorities." And that's when he began to
explain his theory of "A Thousand
Marbles."
"You see, I sat down one day and did a
little arithmetic. The average person lives
about seventy-five years. "Now then,
I multiplied 75 times 52 and I came up with
3,900 which is the number of Saturdays that
the average person has in his/her entire
lifetime!
Now stick with me Tom, I'm getting to the
important part."
"It took me until I was fifty-five years
old to think about all this in any detail",
he went on, "and by that time I had lived
through over twenty-eight hundred Saturdays.
I got to thinking that if I lived to be
seventy-five, I only had about a thousand of
them left to enjoy.
So I went to a toy store and bought every single
marble they had. I ended up having to visit
three toy stores to round-up 1000 marbles.
I took them home and put them inside of a large,
clear plastic container. Every Saturday
since then, I have taken one marble out and
thrown it away. I found that by watching the
marbles diminish, I focused more on the really
important things in life. There is nothing like watching your time
here on this earth run out to help get your
priorities straight."
"Now let me tell you one last thing before
I sign-off with you and take my lovely wife
out for breakfast .This morning, I took the very
last marble out of the container. I figure
if I make it until next Saturday then I have
been given a little extra time. And the
one thing we can all use is a little more
time."
"It was nice to meet you Tom, I hope you
spend more time with your family, and I hope to
meet you again here on the band. 73
Old Man, this is K9NZQ, clear and going QRT,
good morning!"
You could have heard a pin drop on the band when
this fellow signed off. I guess he gave us all a
lot to think about. I had planned to go fishing
with some of my buddies that morning, and then I
was going to work on the antenna, so I could
listen to the game. Instead, I went upstairs and
woke my wife up with a kiss. "C'mon honey,
I'm taking you and the kids to breakfast."
"What brought this on?" she asked with
a smile. "Oh, nothing special, it's just
been a long time since we spent a
Saturday
together with the kids. Hey, can we stop at a
toy store while we're out? I need to buy some
marbles..."
Now
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Time
waits for no one. Profit from each moment given to you for it is very
precious.
And
in the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in
your years.-- Abraham
Lincoln
|
Tim |