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1000 marbles
My wife received this in an E-mail today. I thought it was pretty good and it did make me think.
(This is a long , but very important message, do yourself a favor
and read it's contents, when you're done you will understand the
importance and want to pass it along to everyone you know)
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 kitchen 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 volume up on my radio in order to listen to a Saturday
morning talk show. I heard an older sounding chap with a golden
voice. You know the kind, he sounded like he should be in the
broadcasting business himself.
He was talking about "a thousand marbles" to someone named "Tom."
I was intrigued and sat down 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.
Too bad you missed your daughter's dance recital."
He continued, "Let me tell you something Tom, 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. 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 roundup 1000 marbles.
I took them home and put them inside of a large, clear plastic
container right here in my workshop next to the radio. Every
Saturday since then, I have taken one marble out and
have 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 God has blessed me with a little extra time
to be with my loved ones...
"It was nice to talk to you Tom, I hope you spend more time with
your loved ones, and I hope to meet you again someday.
Have a good morning!"
You could have heard a pin drop when he finished. Even the show's
moderator didn't have anything to say for a few moments. I guess
he gave us all a lot to think about. I had planned to do some work
that morning, then go to the gym. 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," I said. "It has 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."
HAVE A GREAT WEEK AND MAY ALL SATURDAYS BE SPECIAL
AND MAY YOU HAVE MANY HAPPY YEARS AFTER YOU
LOSE ALL YOUR MARBLES.
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