Reprinted from January 1999
I am going to order gift wrap and ribbons for special occasions at least 3 weeks in advance.
I am not going to be annoyed with the woman in the red Honda who tailgates me many mornings on my way to work.
I promise not to yell at Chip for peeling stamps off the self-stick sheets indiscriminately.
I will not yell insults at the heater repairman who captures my customers and fills them full of information where they could buy for less and annoys them with tales of his political philosophy.
I will take one day off every six months for sure.
I promise not to shout at my alarm company which is 600 miles away and constantly has false alarms and wants to charge me for the vehicle and guard to check out what isn’t wrong.
I promise to be more tolerant when calling my alarm company having to go through countless “Press One” “Wait” for ten minutes while I desperately wait.
I will have cheerful things to say to all mail and parcel carriers even those who leave mail down the mall or lose it entirely.
I promise to be more tolerant of elderly people, who are the same age as I am but seem to have considerably more time, who want to chat about their grand kids, their past and their aches and pains, and to limit my discussions about mine to a religious person or my very good friends.
I promise not to be annoyed when the local paper writes up only two jewelers 20 to 30 times but everyone else goes wanting for publicity.
I am definitely not going to stew over my charity getting no local exposure while other charities do less and get much exposure.
I am going to refrain from telling every smoker my husband died from smoking.
I promise not to cut off and hang up on more than 3 telemarketers for the month of January.
I am not going to say ugly things to the customer who has gotten their watch from Walmart but want it sized for free while they wait.
I promise not to throw food vendors, knick knack and do dad sellers out the door…I will ask them to leave more politely.
I promise not to eat three lunches a week which consist of Kentucky Fried Chicken, Pizza Hut food or tamales which are all found in my center.
I promise not to smack the fax machine if it spits out our copies in a tangled mess.
I am going to lower my wrath at suppliers of watch parts which fax back “No longer available.”
Please read the following and count your blessings. I don’t not know the author, but it is worth the while, Happy New Year….Martha
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 the bank 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 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 deposit. 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 fails a grade.
To realize the value of ONE MONTH, ask a mother who gave birth to a premature baby.
To realize the value of ONE WEEK, ask the editor of a weekly newspaper.
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 MILLISECOND, 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, enough to spend your time. And remember that time waits for no one. Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. Today is a gift. That’s why it’s called the present!!
