My Marble Jar......

The older I get, the more I enjoy Sunday morning. 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 Sunday morning are most enjoyable.

A long time ago I was shuffling toward my car with a steaming cup of coffee in one hand and the morning paper in the other. What began as a typical Sunday morning turned into one of those lessons that life seems to hand you from time to time. Let me tell you about it:

Many years ago I was having a bagel and coffee and next to me was an older man, and I love to listen to the old timers! He had a distinct voice, you know the kind; he sounded like he should be in the broadcasting business. He was taking to a guy my age 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. It's too bad you missed your daughter's dance recital," he continued; "Let me tell you something that has helped me keep 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 Sundays 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 Sundays. 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 a large, clear plastic container in the shack next to my work bench.

Every Sunday 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's 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 go. This morning, I took the very last marble out of the container. I figure that if I make it until next Sunday 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 and to meet you Tom. I hope you spend more time with your family, and I hope to talk to you again. This 75 year old man, wishes you a good morning!"

You could have heard a pin drop it seemed. I guess he gave me a lot to think about. I had planned to work that morning, and then I was going to meet up with a few buddies.

Instead, I went home and woke my kids up with a kiss. "C'mon kids, I'm taking you all to breakfast."

"What's up?" They asked..

"Oh, nothing special, it's just been a long time since we spent a Sunday together. And hey, can we stop at a toy store while we're out? I need to buy some marbles."

GODSPEED little ones....

Greg DiRenzo, M.S.
Performance Coach, Trainer, Motivator
"S.M.A.R.T.fit - THE NEXT BIG THING!
"Small Hinges Swing Big Doors"