A little long, but interesting perspective!
The older I get, the more I enjoy Saturday mornings.
Perhaps
it's the quiet solitude that comes with being the
first to
rise, or maybe it's the unbounded joy of not having
to be at
work. Either way, the first few hours of a Saturday
morning
are most enjoyable.
A few weeks ago, I was shuffling toward the garage
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 whom-ever 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. It's too bad you missed your
daughter's
"dance recital" he continued. "Let me tell you
something that
has helped me keep 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. I
know, some
live more and some live less, but on average, folks
live about
seventy-five years.
"Now then, I multiplied 75 times 52 and I came up
with 3900,
which is the number of Saturdays that the average
person has
in their 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 a large, clear plastic
container
right here in the shack next to my gear."
"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 that
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.
This is a 75 Year old Man, 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 work on the antenna that morning, and
then I was
going to meet up with a few hams to work on the next
club
newsletter.
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. And hey, can we stop at a
toy store
while we're out? I need to buy some marbles.
A friend sent this to me, so I to you, my friend.
And so, as one smart bear once said..."If you live
to be a
hundred, I want to live to be a hundred minus one
day, so I
never have to live without you." - Winnie the Pooh.
Pass this on to all of your FRIENDS, even if it
means sending
it to the person that sent it to you.
And if you receive this e-mail many times from many
different
people, it only means that you have many FRIENDS.
And if you get it but once, do not be discouraged
for you will
know that you have at least one good friend...
And that would be ME.
--
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Checked by AVG.
Growing older is mandatory,
growing up is optional
Sonja N. Moore
My MySpace.com site, click here:
http://www.myspace.com/i77506
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