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Good advice--even if you heard it before

Julie

Well-known member
TAKE THE TIME

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 people 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."

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 stomach 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? 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.
 

Shelly

Well-known member
Wow! Words to live by! I've been responsible for most of the above quite often. One thing I'm not is spontaneous, husband and best friend are always giving me the gears about having a "schedule", and heaven help the person that screws it up for me! FIL went into the hospital this week, he lived his life working his fingers to the bones, and not spending time with his family doing fun stuff. Now it's too late for him to do anything. Seeing him this way spurs me on to taking things one day at a time, and living for the moment and enjoying what life has to offer me. I take pleasure in the simplest things, whether it's watching the birds, tending my flowers, or listening to all the sounds around me at 7:00 in the morning. Life IS too short, and I'm not getting any younger. Time for this old girl to have some fun!
 

Julie

Well-known member
I think most of us are guilty of setting schedules for ourselves then beating OURSELVES up when we don't/can't keep the schedule WE SET ---

It's not terminal though ---it can be cured :)
 

andybob

Well-known member
I am fortunate to have grown up in a cose community, family and friends were above all other considerations, life was at a much slower pace than the 'outside world', and there was always time on the weekends for a braai (barbecue) and beer with friends and neighbours. People always 'popped in' when passing your farm, no one ever thought of needing to send or recieve an invitation. People mattered (and still do) and to leave something important unsaid or undone was unthinkable! the years of war only acted as a catalyst to re-inforce this attitude as friends and family were 'lost' to insurgents. Visiting diplomats would sniggeringly make reference to putting their watches back 40 years when landing in Rhodesia, but I am glad of having had the privilege to grow up and raise my own children with old fashioned values, and selling out corporate 'success isn't ever an option materialism can never hold a candle to really living life to the full!
 
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