One Marble At A Time.. :)

1000 Marbles

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 backyard patio 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 to listen to a Saturday morning talk show I heard an older sounding gentleman, with 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 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 that morning. 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 while 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."

-Author Unknown

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Thanksgiving is a holiday devoted to expressing thankfulness, gratitude, and appreciation. Every year, on the fourth Thursday of November, many of us have a day off (usually paid) where we eat, laugh, and spend time with our closest friends and family. For those of us who are lucky enough to spend our day surrounded by love, it is hard to ignore the feeling of gratitude.

We are fortunate to have a holiday where we can celebrate giving thanks, but what about the other 364 days of the year? Somewhere between our busy lives and over-stuffed schedules, we often neglect to be thankful. Sometimes we become so busy and self-involved with all the pressures of life that we may even forget what we are thankful for.

Gratitude is a mindset. Despite what your circumstance may be, there is something to be grateful for each and everyday. We each have so much to be thankful about. Be it something small: a hug or a favorite song, to something big: getting married or having a strong and healthy heart. Just thinking about things that you are grateful for automatically shifts your energy and contributes to a more positive and happy frame of mind. When you take the time to appreciate the little things, you realize how important they really are. Without all these little and seemingly "insignificant" things, you would not be as happy and your life would not be as meaningful.

As the story above illustrates, time goes faster than we realize and without our awareness we may lose the chance to show our appreciation. So with that in mind, please feel free to join us as we begin counting all our marbles. Starting with Thanksgiving..




"God gave you a gift of 86,400 seconds today. Have you used one to say "thank you?" ~William A. Ward