No one on their death bed ever said "I wish I had spent more time at work"
I was talking about this yesterday at church, about the need to rest. A friend of mine once told me about a survey that was taken amongst a group of people who were 90 years old. They were asked if they could go back what 3 things would they do differently, here were their top 3 answers:
1. Leave something that outlives me
2. Risk more
3. Reflect more
I remember the first time I heard the crazy cliche "Life is not a dress rehearsal" it was in a school assembly, in fact it's the only phrase I can remember from any school assembly I ever attended, leading me to question the validity of school assemblies!
All three of these little quotes knock around in my head on a pretty regular basis. Do we all have little definining thoughts that we cling to? They kind of sum up who we are or who we want to be.
A couple more that regularly play on my mind, my mentor once said "he who hesitates has lost" and I heard a Jamaican guy say in 1990 that every day he prayed this prayer: "God make me the man you want me to be, not the man I want to be" I pray this a lot.
Other defining phrases I have are "you value what you do and do what you value" and "It's not how big it is, it's what you do with it!"
I like the phrase "We live as we dream; alone" from Joseph Conrads Heart of Darkness, I am not to sure I agree with it, but I still like it. Another great phrase from a pretty mediocre book called Green River Rising is "welcome to the valley of the long distance runners" it's great line and can sum up life.
"Blessing not selling" defines a lot of how I want to live.
Confucius said "Our greatest glory is not in never failing but in rising every time we fall" Michelangelo said "Our greatest danger is not that we aim to high and miss it but that we aim to low and hit it" these are not exact quotes, just how I remember them.
To others they can sound like sound bites or just clever little phrases, but to me they mean a lot.
I also have a load of bible verses that knock around in my head maybe I will do them later.
I got todays photo from a great free photo stock site called morguefile.com
2 comments:
I remember reading 'Blue Like Jazz' for the first time and reading 'what you believe isn't what you say you beleive, what you believe is what you do'. It scares the crap out of me that this is true.
I Like 'Whats for you wont go past you' its a saying used in my family and I believe it helps me when I wonder why something hasnt happend the way I would like it to, that God has plans for me and what I thought I wanted wasnt in Gods plans. Later on in the future I consider what has happened instead and remember what God has planned for me will not pass me. If this makes sense?? ~(havent explained it very well)
I also like ' he without sin cast the first stone. It helps me when I find myself being judgemental towards people in my head.
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