A good email I had to share
I got this in an email and it needed to be shared.
Something to think about...
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 I send it on, my friends.
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.
Something to think about...
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 I send it on, my friends.
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.