Life Is Short

In cleaning out my e-mail inbox I found this...
READ THIS VERY SLOWLY.... IT'S PRETTY PROFOUND.
>
> 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 'Jeopardy' on television?
>
> I cannot count the times I called my sister and said, "How about going
> to lunch in a half hour?" She would gas up and stammer, "I can't. 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: "It's Monday." She died a few years ago. 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 when all the conditions are perfect!
>
> We'll go back and visit the grandparents when we get Steve toilet-trained.
> We'll entertain 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. One morning, we
> awaken, and 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 b it."
>
> 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. 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. I love ice cream. It's
> just that I might as well apply it directly to my stomach with a
> spatula and eliminate the digestive process 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 on and have a nice day. Do something you WANT to......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 why are you wait ing?
>
> Make sure you read this to the end; you will understand why I sent
> this to you
>
> Have you ever watched kids playing on a merry go round or listened to
> the rain lapping on the ground? Ever followed a butterfly's erratic
> flight or gazed at the sun into the fading night? Do you run through
> each day on the fly? When you ask "How are you?" Do you hear the reply?
>
> When the day is done, do you lie in your bed with the next hundred
> chores running through your head? Ever told your child, "We'll do it
> tomorrow." And in your haste, not see his sorrow? Ever lost touch? Let a good friendship die?
> Just call to say "Hi?
>
> When you worry and hurry through your day, it is like an unopened
> gift....Thrown away.... Life is not a race. Take it slower. Hear the
> music before the song is over.

~Shannon