Are you one of those people who are always
so busy that you never have time to stop and enjoy what you have?
I can remember when I was a young
teenager. I used to think that if I only
had a part time job I’d have some money to do things with my friends. They’d go out driving, stopping occasionally
at the Dairy Queen for a snack. Then
Friday or Saturday nights it was off to the drive-in. Some of you may not even know what that is,
but if you ask your parents or grandparents they’d be able to tell you. Maybe there’d be a chance during the summer
to go out to the swimming pool or even better go for a drive to the river and
find a nice tree with a rope tie-off.
Then you could swing out like Tarzan and make a great splash into the
river. But I never had enough money to
do all those things with my friends.
That part-time job would be the answer to my prayers. Well, I got the job and the money was great. I’d make $90-$100 a week PLUS any tips
I could accumulate. For a 16 year old I
was making really good money (especially at that time). But then I realized I no longer had the free
time to go to the show, or the pool, or the river, or out “cruising” with the
guys, or do anything else for that matter.
I had lost sight of what my true objective had been.
Does this sound a little familiar? We constantly want to do better or get more,
and we lose track of what is really important.
Sometimes life forces us to slow down even when we don’t want to. A few years ago I began having severe pains
in my chest. Fortunately it wasn’t a
heart attack. But, I wound up having to
spend four days in the hospital while they ran some test. While I lay there in the hospital room bed I
had time to contemplate various aspects of my life. That was better than trying
to count those little holes in the ceiling tiles! I’ve come to better appreciate the things
that most people don’t consider very important.
When was the last time you lay out in the grass on a beautiful summer
day and watched the clouds roll by? Remember making those clouds become faces,
cars, trains, various creatures, or anything that your mind could conceive.
Today our lives are more motivated by
panic response. We react to
situations. We respond to stimuli. But occasionally we need to stop the runaway
frantic life and smell the flowers, hear the birds sing and take a moment to
laugh. Yes laugh at our lives at times
and at ourselves more often. We probably
need to learn to look at the world and at ourselves through the eyes of a
child. We need to re-examine from time
to time what are really the important things in our life. We might find there is a tremendous need to
step back for a moment and readjust some priorities. Besides, if we find ourselves in a medical
disaster or some terrible accident that suddenly brings our life to an end,
think of all the things we would have missed.
QUOTE TO CONSIDER
THOUGHTFUL GEM
"It's better to pause and play in the grass
before you are placed UNDER the grass!"
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