How I did it: When I was younger, my mother was much more prone to make sure the dishes were done than to sit at the table and laugh with the family.  All these years later and nothing has changed.  There really are no days for "family days".  As far as they are concerned there is always more work to be done.  As a parent myself now I refuse to follow their example.  Dishes can wait.  Yard work can wait.  Same with the laundry, dusting and floors.  I am going to enjoy my kids.  The rest will always be there for me to do when they are gone.

Lessons & tips: Read the letter in the resources section and decide for yourselves what is the most important.  That's what did it for me.

Resources:  3900 Saturdays



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 is most enjoyable.

A few weeks ago, I was shuffling toward the garage 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 into the phone portion of the band on my ham radio in
order to listen to a Saturday morning swap net. Along the way,I came across an
older sounding chap, with a tremendous signal and a golden voice. You know the
kind; he sounded like he should be in the broadcasting business He was telling
whomever 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. 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 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 ha d 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 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 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 meet you Tom, I hope you spend more time with your family,
and I hope to meet you again here on the band. This is a 75 Year old Man, K9NZQ, clear and going QRT, good
morning!’

You could have heard a pin drop on the band when this fellow signed off. I
guess he gave us all a lot to think about. I had planned to work on the antenna
that morning, and then I was going to meet up with a few hams to work on the
next club newsletter.

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. And hey, can we stop at a toy store while
we’re out? I need to buy some marbles.’

 

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Feb 12, 12:11PM PST | 3 comments | 14 cheers