Joyology

Archive for June, 2008

The 92-year-old, petite, well-poised and proud mother-in-law of my best
friend, who is fully dressed each morning by eight o’clock, with her hair
fashionably coifed and makeup perfectly applied, even though she is legally
blind, moved to a nursing home today. Her husband of 70 years recently passed
away, making the move necessary.

Maurine Jones is the most lovely, gracious, dignified woman that I have ever
had the pleasure of meeting. While I have never aspired to attain her depth
of wisdom, I do pray that I will learn from her vast experience.

After many hours of waiting patiently in the lobby of the nursing home, she
smiled sweetly when told her room was ready. As she maneuvered her walker to
the elevator, I provided a visual description of her tiny room, including the
eyelet sheets that had been hung on her window.

“I love it,” she stated with the enthusiasm of an eight-year-old having just
been presented with a new puppy. “Mrs. Jones, you haven’t seen the room …
just wait.” “That doesn’t have anything to do with it,” she replied.
“Happiness is something you decide on ahead of time. Whether I like my room
or not doesn’t depend on how the furniture is arranged … it’s how I arrange
my mind. I already decided to love it …

“It’s a decision I make every morning when I wake up. I have a choice; I can
spend the day in bed recounting the difficulty I have with the parts of my
body that no longer work, or get out of bed and be thankful for the ones that
do. Each day is a gift, and as long as my eyes open I’ll focus on the new day
and all the happy memories I’ve stored away … just for this time in my
life. Old age is like a bank account … you withdraw from what you’ve put in
…So, my advice to you would be to deposit a lot of happiness in the bank
account of memories.”

A hospital chaplain visited a delightful old lady in the hospital. As he approached her bed he noticed that with the index finger of one hand she was touching, one by one, the fingers of the other, with her eyes closed. When the chaplain spoke to her she opened her eyes and said, “Ah, minister, I was just saying my prayers — the prayers my grandmother taught me many years ago.”
The chaplain looked puzzled, so she went on to explain, “I hold my hand like this, my thumb towards me. That reminds me to pray for those nearest to me. Then, there is my pointing finger, so I pray for those who point the way to others — teachers, leaders, parents. The next finger is the biggest so I pray for those in high places. After that comes the weakest finger — look it won’t stand up by itself, so I pray for the sick and the lonely and the afraid. And this little one — well, last of all I pray for myself.”

Unknown Author

Imagine there is a bank that credits your account each morning with $86,400.
It carries over no balance from day to day.
Every evening deletes whatever part of the balance you failed to use during the day.
What would you do? Draw out every cent, of course!
Each of us has such a bank. Its name is TIME.
Every morning, it credits you with 86,400 seconds.
Every night it writes off, as lost, whatever of this you have failed to invest to good purpose.
It carries over no balance.
It allows no overdraft.
Each day it opens a new account for you.
Each night it burns the remains of the day.
If you fail to use the day’s deposits, the loss is yours.
There is no going back. There is no drawing against the “tomorrow”.
You must live in the present on today’s deposits.
Invest it so as to get from it the utmost in health, happiness and success!
The clock is running. Make the most of today.
To realize the value of ONE YEAR, ask a student who failed a grade.
To realize the value of ONE MONTH, ask a mother who gave birth to a pre-mature baby.
To realize the value of ONE WEEK, ask the editor of a weekly newspaper.
To realize the value of ONE DAY, ask a daily wage laborer with kids to feed.
To realize the value of ONE HOUR, ask the lovers who are waiting to meet.
To realize the value of ONE MINUTE, ask a person who missed the train.
To realize the value of ONE SECOND, ask a person who just avoided an accident.
To realize the value of ONE MILLI-SECOND, ask the person who won a silver medal in the Olympics.
Treasure every moment that you have! And treasure it more because you shared it with someone special, special enough to spend your time.
And remember that time waits for no one.
Yesterday is history.
Tomorrow a mystery.
Today is a gift.
That’s why it’s called the present!

~~~Author Unknown