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Saturdays...
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 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 WEEKEND AND MAY ALL SATURDAYS BE SPECIAL AND MAY YOU HAVE
MANY HAPPY YEARS AFTER YOU LOSE ALL YOUR MARBLES.
May God bless you in all you do.
-- author unknown --
(Thanks to Sherry for sending this to us.)
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The
straight-up and simple standard for right livelihood is that we find work
that does not harm others and, ideally, which serves others with maximum
benefit. If the work we engage gives us some degree of satisfaction and
serves in general as a point of connection and opportunity for cooperation
with others, then we're way ahead of the game.
Many
women, since September 11, 2001, have wrestled within themselves about peace
and war. Joining a chain of women stretching far back in time, they have
asked, as they have asked for centuries, why humankind endlessly repeats the
tragic cycle of violence and retribution. Once again, they have mourned
lives needlessly sacrificed to bitter political and religious rivalries...
"Graaandmaaa,
buy me a pair of Jordache jeans," my voice would whine. Back then, every
season demanded new clothes: back to school clothes, summer clothes, spring
clothes, birthday clothes.... Now I live on the holy banks of the Ganges, in
Rishikesh, India.
Responsible
profit taking is honorable. Legitimate producers deserve to be rewarded for
their earnest contributions. It is when profit taking replaces concern for
others or for ecosystems that a perversity occurs whereby everyone and
everything suffers. At that point, we are not evolving but devolving...
Life
surrounds us with teachers, if we are but willing to learn. Actually,
everyone in our life is our teacher -- they teach by example of something
we'd like to attain or something we'd like to abandon. One of my greatest
teachers these days is my dog, Angel.
