3900 Saturdays

I received an email a few months ago and saved it due to the perspective it gave me. I have finally found some free time so I can write some blogs and catch up on emails, readings, phone calls, etc., that I have fallen behind in due to my hectic schedule. I hope you take the time to read this and give it a ponder. Feel free to comment on your thoughts. Brightest blessings to all.

3900 Saturdays - author unknown.

So many of us get busy with our jobs, errands and to do lists. Jobs may pay you well but it's a shame to have to be away from home and your family so much. Hard to believe that anyone should have to work sixty or seventy hours a week to make ends meet but it is not a rare occurance in this day and age - happens all the time and if not with one job then a person may hold two jobs just to stay above water especially with the way inflation is going up - in fact, everything is going up: gas prices, electric, food, cable, water, taxes (property and state) etc. It's too bad you missed your daughter's dance recital, your son's Holiday concert, a friends birthday party or the cookout due to your obligations for work or because you were away for work or you were just to damn run down and tired, but it does happen. Let me tell you something that has helped me keep my own priorities-the theory of a "thousand marbles."

You see, I sat down one day and did a little arithmetic. The average person lives about seventy-five years. I know some live more and some live less, but on average, folks live about seventy-five years. Now I multiplied 75 times 52 and I came up with 3,900, which is the number of Saturdays that the average person has in their entire lifetime. Now stick with me, I'm getting to the important part. It took me until I was fifty-five years old to think about all this in any detail, and by that time, I had lived through over twenty-eight hundred Saturdays. I got to thinking that if I lived to be seventy-five, I only had about a thousand of them left to enjoy. So I went to a toy store and bought every single marble they had. I ended up having to visit three toy stores to round up 1,000 marbles. I took them home and put them inside a large, clear plastic container. Every Saturday since then, I have taken one marble out and thrown it away. I found that by watching the marbles diminish, I focused more on the really important things in life. There's nothing like watching your time here on this earth run out to help get your priorities straight.

Now let me tell you one last thing before I sign off with you and take my lovely wife/husband/family out for breakfast/dinner. This morning, I took the very last marble out of the container. I figure that if I make it until next Saturday then I have been given a little extra time. And the one thing we can all use is a little more time.
Make the most of things always - whether it be negative, turn it into a positive. Go out and do something different or something you have always wanted to do, go meet some people, get together with friends. Remember life here is very short and there is no room to go back and redo things, just move forward and do the best you can.

If this message would have been heard on a radio, I would be willing to bet you could have heard a pin drop when this person finished the lesson and signed off. I would gather to guess he gave us all a lot to think about.
Brightest blessings to all.