Slow Down!....you're going too fast!!!

[GrayBeard]

READ THIS VERY CAREFULLY... IT'S PRETTY PROFOUND.

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   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 the little one 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?   

Make sure you read this to the end; you will understand why I sent this to you.   

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 her 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!'

These are the kinds of things some of us 'oldtimers' think about while the blade is doing its job!!!

~~~GrayBeard~~~

[Rapid Roger]

I agree. Stop and smell the roses.
I often go sit on the front porch at sundown just so I can see it, and then wait for the bats to come out to eat dinner. I just discovered Tuesday that it has been 7 years since we planted the three trees in our yard! The patio concret has 4/28/77 etched into it about the time our youngest son was born.
Where did the time go?

Rog

[GrayBeard]

And what gets me most is we (the current generation) is moving so darn fast that the youngsters don't get time to be just KIDS!
On the move constantly. I have younger friends who have to get their kids to Hockey practice at 5:00 a.m. because that is the only time available at the rink.

Stopped by our local rink to show it to a friend last Sunday night at 11:30...We have two rinks in the building and both were being used by adults for Hockey practice!
The manager has told me he could sell ice time 24 hours a day if the City would let him!

Don't people ever stay home, sit down and TALK anymore?

Well the sun is under the yardarm so its time for a cold brew...Care to join me???

~~~GrayBeard~~~

[boxmaker]

Cheers to you Graybeard. I read this to my wife and we went and treated ourselves to an ice cream.

[Rapid Roger]

Yea Gray thanks, I just poped a top myself.
I know what you mean, Our daughter is a "stay-at-home-mom" with 3 kids and she is never home! Her children are a girl 12 a boy 8 and the youngest is a girl 2 years old. Between riding lessons, judo class church camp, space camp, girl scouts and doctor visits she is gone all the time. Not to mention her and her hubby are very involved in the church, supper clubs, gardening and about 3 other things that I can't rember.
Grandma and I get to baby sit alot and I'm very proud of the things that family does but they must put more miles on each of their cars in a month than I put on my van in a whole year!
I would like to think that I should talk to them about slowing down but ya know what, they are enjoying their life and are as happy as clams.
They are very caring and the children are as smart as whips and happy too. The 8 year old taught me how to start and stop the DVD! The 2 year old is the happiest, calmest and most out going child of that age you ever saw!
Different strokes for different folks I  guess.  
We cat live their live for them!

Rog
 

[JCoff]

I agree .......... everyone thinks they have to get there or do that before someone else does it. My thoughts are why hurry its not going anywhere.......... your life may only have a few moments or a couple decades left in it why not enjoy the scenery as we roll down the road of life.

                                                                                 Jeff

[GrayBeard]

Jeff...We Missouri boys seem to like to take things a bit slower and enjoy the trip.

Of course as we get older the trip seems like it goes so much faster!

Hoping everything is good in BT!!!

~~~GrayBeard~~~

[cornishpisky]

You struck a chord with that post GrayBeard.

All the things i have said i will do, my list is sooooooo long, but always too busy, always doing something around the house or in the garden, i was once a keen hillwalker and potholer (Speleologist) gave up potholing when i met my wife but carried on walking for a while, then settled down into the husband/father routine, never could find time to go out and do things then, "i'll do it tomorrow or next week", but never did, always the house and garden came first, always too busy, and the pounds piled on, well, now i need a lung transplant, it's made me sit and think, all the things i was going to do, now i can't do them, so now the house don't look so great, the gardens a bit overgrown, but if my wife or kids say 'shall we go somewhere', we go, i go, i'm not missing out on anything else, i have to loose weight before i can have a lung transplant, but the way i see it is 'if i don't have the transplant i might die, if i have the transplant i might die, but i'm not dead yet! so, if i want an ice cream i'll have one, if i want a cake i'll have one, i can't do all the things that i put off doing but i can try! if i'm to die i will spend what time i have doing things, fun things with my family, not putting them off, were only here for a short time and were a long time dead.

Don't put it off! you'll regret it, i know i do!

Forgive my rambling, just felt i had to say it.

Ian