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Seize The
Moment! Part 1
Anonymous
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 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 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 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'll awaken, and all we'll 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?
Contributed
by
James Odle, Jr.
Defining
Moments
Archives
Copyright
© 2006, Jace Carlton. All International Rights Reserved.
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