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 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 favourite:
"It's Monday."
She
died a few years ago. We never did have lunch together. Because North
Americans 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? Make sure you read this to the end;
you will understand why I posted this for 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? 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.
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