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Old 07-19-2007, 09:22 PM
chaotic_resolve chaotic_resolve is offline
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Post You Are Losing Your Marbles

-- Author Unknown --

The older I get, the more I enjoy Sunday mornings. Perhaps it's the quiet solitude that comes with being the first to rise, or maybe it's the unbounded joy of not having to be at work. Either way, the first few hours of a Sunday morning are most enjoyable.

A few weeks ago, I was shuffling toward the kitchen with a steaming cup of coffee in one hand and the morning paper in the other. What began as a typical Sunday morning turned into one of those lessons that life seems to hand you from time to time. Let me tell you about it.

I turned the volume up on my radio in order to listen to a Sunday morning gospel hour. I heard an older sounding chap with a golden voice. You know the kind, he sounded like he should be in the broadcasting business himself. He was talking about "a thousand marbles" to someone named "Tom."

I was intrigued and sat down to listen to what he had to say. "Well, Tom, it sure sounds like you're busy with you job. I'm sure they pay you well but it's a shame you have to be away from home and your family so much. Hard to believe a young fellow should have to work sixty or seventy hours a week to make ends meet. Too bad you missed your daughter's dance recital."

He continued, "Let me tell you something Tom, something that has helped me keep a good perspective on my own priorities." And that's when he began to explain his 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 then, I multiplied 75 times 52 and I came up with 3900 which is the number of Sundays that the average person has in their entire lifetime. Now stick with me Tom, 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," he went on, "and by that time I had lived through over twenty-eight hundred Sundays. 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 1000 marbles. I took them home and put them inside of a large, clear plastic container right her in my workshop next to the radio. Every Sunday 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 is nothing like watching your time here on this earth run out to help you get your priorities straight."

"Now let me tell you one last thing before I sign-off with you and take my lovely wife out for breakfast."

"This morning, I took the very last marble out of the container. I figure if I make it until next Sunday then I have been given a little extra time. And the one thing we can all use is a little more time."

"It was nice to talk to you Tom, I hope you spend more time with your loved ones, and I hope to meet you again someday. Have a good morning."

The moderator didn't have anything to say for a few moments. I guess he gave us all a lot to think about. I had planned to do some work that morning, then go to the gym. Instead, I went upstairs and woke my wife up with a kiss. "C'mon honey, I'm taking you and the kids to breakfast."

"What brought this on?" she asked with a smile. "Oh, nothing special, it's just been a long time since we spent a Sunday together with the kids. Hey, can we stop at a toy store while we're out? I need to buy some marbles."

Proverbs 27:1 "Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring forth."

Psalms 103:15, 16 "As for man, his days are like grass, he flourishes like a flower of the field; the wind blows over it and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more."

James 4:13 "Now listen, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.' Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, 'If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that.'"
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Old 07-19-2007, 09:23 PM
SDG SDG is offline
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My principal shared this w/ us last year at the beginning of the school year ... and gave us all some marbles to remember this story
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Old 07-19-2007, 09:24 PM
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Monkeyman Monkeyman is offline
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And then we went to church...happily ever after. he he
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Old 07-19-2007, 09:25 PM
SarahElizabeth
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Thanks for posting this....Looking back on my life, I would have done quite a few things differently.
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Old 07-19-2007, 09:30 PM
chaotic_resolve chaotic_resolve is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Daniel Alicea View Post
My principal shared this w/ us last year at the beginning of the school year ... and gave us all some marbles to remember this story
Do you know who the author is? This was part of an book I purchased and downloaded online, but I can't find an author listed.
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Old 07-19-2007, 09:42 PM
SarahElizabeth
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I typed the first lines into "google" and got a rather strange cite where that was posted....Barbara Coloroso's name popped into my mind, but the poem is probably not hers.

http://www.kidsareworthit.com/books.html
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Old 07-20-2007, 04:05 AM
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Trouvere Trouvere is offline
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great post.I enjoyed reading it.
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