THE MARBLES STORY... PASS IT ON!

It has been a challenging Spring with illness and elderly relatives, and I am constantly reminded that life is fragile and precious and that every day should be lived to the full doing work that you are passionate about and spending time with the people you love and care about. This story reminds us about the relentless passage of time and the importance of getting your priorities right. I found this story in my late night searches of the internet looking for inspiration.  "A man called in to a radio phone in "Let me tell you something, 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 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," 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 1,000 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 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 talk to you, I hope you spend more time with your family, and I hope to talk to 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 that morning, and then I was going to meet up with a few friends. 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."
© Copyright 1999, Jeffrey Davis.

In the hurly burly of work and our struggle against the odds to get by or to get ahead we can forget the things that are really important... faith, family and friends. Perhaps we should all go out and buy some marbles!