Inspirational Love Stories
Count Your Marbles
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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. Won't you agree?
A few weeks ago, I was shuffling towards 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.
Let me tell you about it.
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. 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
my workshop next to the radio. 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 talk to you Tom, I hope you'll 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, 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 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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