Balance
Too
many people put off something that brings them joy just because they haven't thought about
it much lately, don't have it on their schedule, didn't know it was coming or are too
rigid to depart from their routine. I got
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 something on television? I cannot
count the times I called my sister and said, "How
about going to lunch in a half hour?" She would gasp 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 people 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 Stevie 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 hips 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?
You
better slow down.
Don't
dance so fast.
Time
is short.
The
music won't last.
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"?
You'd
better slow down.
Don't
dance so fast.
Time
is short.
The
music won't last.
When
you run so fast to get somewhere,
You
miss half the fun of getting there.
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.