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
favorite: ‘It’s Monday.’ She died a few years
ago. We never did have lunch together.
Because 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.’
W hen 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 Roller
blades 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 e
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
butter fly’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.
‘Life may not be the party we hoped for… but while we
are here we might as well dance!
