I miss you Sam!!

I miss you Sam!!
I miss you Sam!!

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Evening, Wisdom - Life Comes at You Fast ! How are You Using Your Time?



A friend sent this to me the other day -- I had to stop and wonder if she had done it for more of a reason than just sharing something she had found or had sent to her. But for whatever reason, it did make me stop and take a look at how I use my time. It's worth taking a minute or so to read.

Too many of us 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 people on the Titanic who 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 many women out there will eat at home because their husband didn't suggest going out to dinner until after something had been thawed? Does the word 'refrigeration' mean nothing to you?

How often have your kids dropped in to talk and sat in silence while you watched 'Jeopardy' on television?

I cannot count the times I called my sister and said , 'How about going to lunch in a half hour?' She would gas up and stammer, 'I can't. I have clothes on the line. 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 Monday.' She died a few years ago. We never did have lunch together.

Because Canadians cram so much into their lives, we tend to schedule our headaches.. We live on a sparse diet of promises we make to ourselves when all the conditions are perfect!

We'll go back and visit the grandparents when we get Steve toilet-trained. We'll entertain when we replace the living-room carpet. We'll go on a second honeymoon when we get two more kids 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 awaken, 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.'

When anyone calls my 'seize the moment' friend, she is open to adventure and available for trips. She keeps an open mind on new ideas. Her enthusiasm for life is contagious. You talk with her for five minutes, and you're ready to trade your bad feet for a pair of Rollerblades and skip an elevator for a bungee cord.

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?

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? Ever told your child, 'We'll do it tomorrow.' And in your haste, not see his 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.

'Life may not be the party we hoped for...

but while we are here we might as well dance!'

22 comments:

Bonnie Zieman, M.Ed. said...

Good advice. Now - or perhaps never.

Susan at Stony River said...

Amen, Sylvia. Those are wise words; thanks for passing it on! The Titanic dessert image is going to stick with me.
:-(

Janie said...

I believe in dancing to the music while I still can...and making up the music if I don't hear any.
I've passed up too many opportunities to enjoy life in the past, just as most of us have. Enough of that.

Linda Reeder said...

Oh, I like to think that retirement is just for the purpose of having that dessert when you want to, for going on spontaneous adventures, for looking up long lost cousins, all of that so eloquently stated in your post.
Thanks for reminding me to seize the day!

Anonymous said...

Indeed, never hold back that which excites you. It needs to be expressed and released into the world to be shared. Diets are an act of repression. When one is happy and in alignment to their surroundings, they are perfect. They can digest all that is good which includes that which makes you happy and the beauty and their associated vibrations that we take in when we are open to recieive. No regrets ever. Live a life of abundance by sharing that which you receive.

Loran said...

This is an excellent post! Lately I have been living like I'm on the Titanic and it might be my last dessert EVER so there is some kind of balance called for but I ahven't found it yet.

Great Grandma Lin said...

good advice, my friend caryn is like that, i love to be around her.

magiceye said...

so true..

Grayquill said...

Good Post! - Cats in the craddle

Lee Spangler said...

Doing my best to live it wild right now. I am making great plans everyday and the time for living them is now. Big bike ride around Crater Lake is next and after that, wow you'll see soon.
Thanks for all your encouragement!

Kay said...

Gee... I guess I did sort of try to dance today, somewhat unsuccessfully. I won't quit though. I'll be going to line dancing class tomorrow and will try my best.

kRiZcPEc said...

Thanks for sharing

jabblog said...

Great advice - let's all follow it :-)

Arkansas Patti said...

Great advice. I scratched procrastination from my vocabulary when I retired. Wish I had done it sooner. Tomorrow, even the next moment, is not guanteed.

Michael Horvath said...

Your thoughts bring me to something that has been going through my own mind as I have been getting older. Time is a very precious thing and we certainly cannot get it back..

Reader Wil said...

So true!!! Carpe Diem or Seize the Day is a good advice! It's now or never....
Thanks for this post! Have a great weekend and do what you love to do.

Kay said...

inspiring, encouraging, powerful and fantastic! :) you are the highlight of the day

Sujatha Bagal said...

Much needed advice. Thanks, Sylvia. So hard to live in the moment. The past and the future are always fighting over who gets to invade the present.

Jenn Jilks said...

I suppose I wasted today! I read some blogs, wrote some posts, read my book by the lake. I puttered. No goals for tomorrow, except for buying a new couch! Yeah, retirement!

robin andrea said...

Such sage advice. As always.

J said...

Good advice - I'm now eating a champagne truffle (but I was going to do that anyway!), it's so easy to do - and to fall into the idea that 'i can't because...'.

storyteller said...

Marvelous reminder ;--)
I do try to make the most of the moment and to be spontaneous whenever ... just because but it's good to have such validation for my choices. Thanks for sharing.
Hugs and blessings,

What Can I Say?

What Can I Say?
I'm interested in almost everything. Use to like to travel, but it's too expensive now. I take Tai Chi classes, swim, volunteer in a Jump-start program for pre-schoolers. I'm an avid reader and like nearly everyone these days I follow politics avidly. I'm a former teacher and Special Projects Coordinator for a Telecommunications company, Assistant to the President of a Japanese silicon wafer manufacturing company. Am now enjoying retirement -- most of the time. I have two daughters, one son-in-law and two sons scattered all over the country. No grandchildren.

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