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A
Thousand Marbles
"Nobody can go back and start a new
beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending. -- Maria
Robinson
The older I get, the more I enjoy
Saturday 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 Saturday 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
Saturday morning turned into one of those lessons that life seems to hand you
from time to time. I turned the volume up on my radio in order to listen to a
Saturday morning talk show. 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 your 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."
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 Saturdays 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 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 roundup 1000 marbles. I took
them home and put them inside of a large, clear plastic container right here
in my workshop next to the radio. Every Saturday since then, I have taken one
marble out and have 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 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 Saturday then God has blessed me with a little
extra time to be with my loved ones."
"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!"
You could have heard a pin drop when he finished. Even the show's 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, and 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," I said. "It has
just been a long time since we spent a Saturday together with the kids. Hey,
can we stop at a toy store while we're out? I need to buy some marbles."
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