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INSPIRATIONAL PAGES
1000 MARBLES
This one makes you think....have a great Saturday!
A few weeks ago, I was shuffling toward the basement
shack 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. Let me tell you
about it.
I turned the dial up into the phone portion of the band
on my ham
radio in order to listen to a Saturday morning swap net. Along the way,
I came across an older sounding chap, with a tremendous signal and a
golden voice. You know the kind, he sounded like he should be in the
broadcasting business. He was telling whoever he was talking with
something about "a thousand marbles."
I was intrigued and stopped 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. 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 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 round-up 1000 marbles. I
took them home and put them inside of a large, clear plastic container
right here in the shack next to my gear. 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 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 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."
"It was nice to meet you Tom, I hope you spend more
time with your
family, and I hope to meet you again."
You could have heard a pin drop on the radio when this
fellow signed
off.
I guess he gave us all a lot to think about. I had planned to
work
on the antenna that morning, and then I was going to meet up with a few
hams to work on the next club newsletter. 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
Saturday together with the kids. Hey, can we stop at a toy store
while
we're out? I need to buy some marbles."
