Will you dance with me?

[Tiki Bar]

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 television?

I cannot count the times I called my sister and said, “How about going to lunch in a half hour?” She would gasp 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 bit.”

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 waiting?

Have you ever watched kids playing on a merry go round or listened to the rain lapping on the ground? Ever followed a butter fly'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.

“Life may not be the party we hoped for... but while we are here we might as well dance!”

~author unknown

[TropicalTroubador]

Life's too short to be in a hurry.

[phjrsaunt]

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 waiting?



I did! I did! I took one of the dogs to the park. If I hadn't done that, he wouldn't have seen his first horse and I wouldn't have spewed in public watching him jump three feet sideways from a standstill when the horse moved.

[Tiki Bar]

It's those little things!

[Bicycle Bill]

At the end — "author unknown".

Why is it that nine times out of ten, when you come across something like this — something for which someone *should*, by all that's right and holy, receive credit — it's generally anonymous or has been passed back and forth and around and down for so long that the rightful author has become lost to the ages?

Having said that, it sounds suspiciously to me like something Erma Bombeck would have been proud to call her own.

Granted, it's nothing more than an expansion upon the concept of "eat, drink, and make merry, for tomorrow we may die". Maybe it's because we're all Buffett fans here and Jimmy's music taps into that in some small way. But Jimmy's music, while it's entertaining us, also sometimes makes us think, just as this essay does. And right now I'm thinking that there's more than a little truth in what the author of the above essay wrote.

Instead of sitting here at the computer, I probably should be doing something constructive, like my laundry. But it's a sunny afternoon and I can do the laundry after dark. I'm going to log off, get ol' Trusty Rusty out of the shed, and I'm going for a bit of a bicycle ride. And if I don't get back until after dinner sometime and the laundry has to wait until tomorrow (or Saturday), then so be it.

-"BB"-

[springparrot]

Thank you for the reminder JoAnn.

[tikitatas]

Hear, hear. Nice post, JoAnn!

[flyboy55]

Very nice post and so true. We should all make more time in the present for the present and not spend so much of the present thinking about the future.

Thanks for posting that.

[citcat]

Thanks TikiBar !

Although I feel guilty, I've done that kids-dropping-in while I watch tv thing.
No more.

[Wino you know]

Life has a way of accelerating as we get older. The days get shorter,

YES!!!
Absolutely true.

And, Baby, I'M DANCING!
I'm dancing my overly-ample, f@rt-smelling, commode-hugging, aching A$$ off.
And don't try to stop me or you'll be trampled to death.

[SMLCHNG]

We should all make more time in the present for the present and not spend so much of the present thinking about the future.

Agreed.
And the past.

Thanks, JoAnn.

[pcbfan]

Thank You!!!!

[C-Dawg]

One of my favorite things to do is to dance with my baby

[MammaBear]

Life has a way of accelerating as we get older. The days get shorter,

YES!!!
Absolutely true.

And, Baby, I'M DANCING!
I'm dancing my overly-ample, f@rt-smelling, commode-hugging, aching A$$ off.
And don't try to stop me or you'll be trampled to death.

uhhh...can you post some video of that?

[Wino you know]

Life has a way of accelerating as we get older. The days get shorter,

YES!!!
Absolutely true.

And, Baby, I'M DANCING!
I'm dancing my overly-ample, f@rt-smelling, commode-hugging, aching A$$ off.
And don't try to stop me or you'll be trampled to death.

uhhh...can you post some video of that?

Uh, no.

[magnus & Mr Moon]

wow - very nice. Thanks for posting. Good advice for everyone!!!

[ragtopW]

I thought you wanted to Dance with me...

[Barefoot Gypsy]

I LOVE this post!! I try very hard to live this way but alas...life does get in the way at times. Having lost too many people way too soon in my life I try to not get bogged down by the chores, how clean my house is, etc. My house is picked up but would not pass a white glove test. But I have a great relationship with my boys 18, 17, & 7 because they know they come first. My oldest loves hanging out with me and not really doing anything huge other than spending time. Oneday soon they will all be grown and these days will be gone. For now...I'm going to treasure the moments we share and look to the future ones as well. I push myself everyday to "Just Do It!" and enjoy whatever "it" is. I am noy always successful and I do let myself get caught in ruts...thanks for posting this and bringing it back to the front of my mind.

[Bfan53again]

Thanks JoAnn for reminding us all to stop and smell the roses each and every day of this beautiful experience called "Life"........

[alphabits]

Have you ever watched kids playing on a merry go round .....?

Have you ever had a restraining order taken out against you because some suspicious mothers got creeped out by you watching their kids playing on a merry go round?