Wake Up Call

This is copied from a chain email my Mom sent me over a week ago. I have been "too busy" to read it until now. It's not the most beautifully written piece, but an important message nonetheless. And I am behind on my blog and a new post was "on my list" so why not let this be my post?!


Will You Dance With Me?

Too many people put off something that brings them joy just because they haven't thought about it, don't have it on their schedule, didn't know it was coming or are too rigid to depart from their routine.

I got to thinking one day about all those women on the Titanic who passed up dessert at dinner that fateful night in an effort to cut back. From then on, I've tried to be a little more flexible.

How many women out there will eat at home because their husband didn't suggest going out to dinner until after something had been thawed? Does the word 'refrigeration' mean nothing to you?

How often have your kids dropped in to talk and sat in silence while you watched 'Survivor' on television?

I can't count the times I called my sister and said, 'how about going to lunch in a half hour'? She would choke up and stammer I can't because; 'I have clothes on the line', 'my hair is dirty', 'I wish I had known yesterday', 'I had a late breakfast', 'it looks like rain' and my personal favorite is 'it's Monday'. She died a few years ago and we never did have lunch together.

Because Americans cram so much into their lives, we tend to schedule our headaches. We live on a sparse diet of promises we make to ourselves of things we'll do when all the conditions are perfect!

We'll go visit the grandparents when we get Steve toilet-trained. We'll entertain guests when we replace the living room carpet. We'll go on a second honeymoon when we get two more kids out of college.

Life has a way of accelerating as we get older. The days get shorter, and the list of promises to ourselves gets longer. Then one morning we'll awaken to find that all we have to show for our lives is a litany of 'I'm going to', 'I plan on', and 'someday when things are settled down a bit'.

When anyone calls my 'seize the moment' friend, she is open to adventure and available for trips. She keeps an open mind on new ideas and her enthusiasm for life is contagious. You talk with her for five minutes and you're ready to trade your bad feet for a pair of Roller Blades and skip an elevator for a Bungee Cord.

My lips have not touched ice cream in 10 years and yet I love ice cream. It's just that I might as well apply it directly to my stomach with a spatula and eliminate the entire digestive process. So the other day I stopped the car and bought a triple-decker. If my car had hit an iceberg on the way home I would have died happy.

Now go do something on your "WANT TO" list and not something on your "SHOULD DO" list. If you were going to die soon and had only one phone call you could make, who would you call and what would you say? And what are you waiting for?

Make sure you read this to the end and then you will understand why I sent this to you.

Have you ever watched kids playing on a Merry-Go-Round or listened to the sound of the rain? Have you ever followed a butterfly's erratic flight or gazed at the sun as it fades into the night? Do you run through each day on the fly? When you ask someone 'How are you?' do you hear their reply?

When the day is done, do you lie in your bed with the next hundred chores running through your head? Have you ever told your child, 'We'll do it tomorrow' and in your haste, not see the sorrow in their eyes? Have you ever lost touch or let a good friendship die? Then you need to pick up the phone, call them and tell them you just called to say 'hi'.

When you worry and hurry through your day, it is like an unopened gift.... thrown away.... life is not a race so take it a little slower so you can hear the music before the song is over.

'Life may not be the party we hoped for, but while we're here we might as well dance!