Hermes
Member
A colleague sent me this:
Too many people put off something that brings them joy just because they haven't thought about it, don't have it on their schedule, didn't know it was coming or are too rigid to depart from their routine.
I got to thinking one day about all those women on the Titanic who might have passed up dessert at dinner that fateful night in an effort to cut back.. From then on, I've tried to be a little more flexible.
How often have your kids come by just wanting to talk and sat in silence while you watched 'Jeopardy' or football on television?
I cannot count the times I called my sister and said, 'How about going to lunch?' She would gas up and stammer, 'I can't. I have clothes in the dryer. My hair is dirty. I wish I had known yesterday, I had a late breakfast. It looks like rain.' And my personal favorite: 'It's Saturday.' She died a few years ago. We never did have lunch together.
Because Australians cram so much into their lives, we tend to schedule our headaches. We live on a sparse diet of promises we make to ourselves only when all the conditions are perfect! And they never are!
We'll go back and visit the grandparents when we get the little one toilet-trained. We'll have people over when we replace the living-room carpet... We'll go on a second honeymoon when our kid gets out of college.
Life has a way of accelerating as we get older. The days get shorter, and the list of promises to ourselves gets longer. One morning, we wake up, and all we have to show for our lives is a litany of 'I'm going to,' 'I plan on,' and 'Someday, when things are settled down a bit.'
My lips have not touched ice cream in 10 years. I love ice cream. It's just that I might as well apply it directly to my stomach with a spatula and eliminate the digestive process. The other day, I stopped the car and bought a triple-decker. If my car had hit an iceberg on the way home, I would have died happy.
Now...go on and have a nice day. Do something you WANT TO...not something on your SHOULD DO list.
If you were going to die soon and had only one phone call you could make, who would you call and what would you say? And why are you waiting?
Make sure you read this to the end; you will understand why I sent this to you.
Have you ever watched kids playing on a merry go round or listened to the rain lapping on the ground? Ever followed a butterfly's erratic flight or gazed at the sun into the fading night? Do you run through each day on the fly? When you ask ' How are you?' Do you hear the reply?
When the day is done, do you lie in your bed with the next hundred chores running through your head?
How many times have you told your child, 'We'll do it tomorrow.' And in your haste, not see their sorrow? Ever lost touch? Let a good friendship die? Just call to say 'Hi?
When you worry and hurry through your day, it is like an unopened gift...thrown away...Life is not a race. Take it slower. Hear the music before the song is over.
Too many people put off something that brings them joy just because they haven't thought about it, don't have it on their schedule, didn't know it was coming or are too rigid to depart from their routine.
I got to thinking one day about all those women on the Titanic who might have passed up dessert at dinner that fateful night in an effort to cut back.. From then on, I've tried to be a little more flexible.
How often have your kids come by just wanting to talk and sat in silence while you watched 'Jeopardy' or football on television?
I cannot count the times I called my sister and said, 'How about going to lunch?' She would gas up and stammer, 'I can't. I have clothes in the dryer. My hair is dirty. I wish I had known yesterday, I had a late breakfast. It looks like rain.' And my personal favorite: 'It's Saturday.' She died a few years ago. We never did have lunch together.
Because Australians cram so much into their lives, we tend to schedule our headaches. We live on a sparse diet of promises we make to ourselves only when all the conditions are perfect! And they never are!
We'll go back and visit the grandparents when we get the little one toilet-trained. We'll have people over when we replace the living-room carpet... We'll go on a second honeymoon when our kid gets out of college.
Life has a way of accelerating as we get older. The days get shorter, and the list of promises to ourselves gets longer. One morning, we wake up, and all we have to show for our lives is a litany of 'I'm going to,' 'I plan on,' and 'Someday, when things are settled down a bit.'
My lips have not touched ice cream in 10 years. I love ice cream. It's just that I might as well apply it directly to my stomach with a spatula and eliminate the digestive process. The other day, I stopped the car and bought a triple-decker. If my car had hit an iceberg on the way home, I would have died happy.
Now...go on and have a nice day. Do something you WANT TO...not something on your SHOULD DO list.
If you were going to die soon and had only one phone call you could make, who would you call and what would you say? And why are you waiting?
Make sure you read this to the end; you will understand why I sent this to you.
Have you ever watched kids playing on a merry go round or listened to the rain lapping on the ground? Ever followed a butterfly's erratic flight or gazed at the sun into the fading night? Do you run through each day on the fly? When you ask ' How are you?' Do you hear the reply?
When the day is done, do you lie in your bed with the next hundred chores running through your head?
How many times have you told your child, 'We'll do it tomorrow.' And in your haste, not see their sorrow? Ever lost touch? Let a good friendship die? Just call to say 'Hi?
When you worry and hurry through your day, it is like an unopened gift...thrown away...Life is not a race. Take it slower. Hear the music before the song is over.
