Don't spend your life waiting!

Recently I read an amazing story. In the early part of last century there was a young couple that were very much in love. Tom and Grace were engaged to be married and were looking forward to the day when they would be husband and wife. They absolutely adored each other. What was particularly obvious was Tom’s love for his beautiful fiancé. Along came World War I. Yes, it got completely in the way of plans that had been made by Tom and Grace.

Grace decided that because her beau had been called away to fight for his country, and there was a big chance that he would not return, she would not take the risk of losing a husband. Losing a fiancé was bad enough. So off Tom went to war and Grace went her own way. For many reasons life went on.

Many, many years later Tom and Grace, both 75 years old now, literally bumped into each other. Tom, still besotted with Grace, proposed yet again! It seems that he had returned from World War I unscathed, could not find Grace and met and married another woman who had since passed on. He had spent 50 years in misery longing for the love (and life) he desired with his long-lost sweetheart.

Grace’s answer to Tom’s second proposal was that they were too old now. She would only be a burden to him and after all, they did not have many years to go anyway. And they went their own ways yet again. And if the story ended there, it would probably be a good lesson to many of us in some ways, but it does not.

Twenty years later Tom and Grace ended up in the same aged care facility. Tom may have given up on proposing by now but he was still in love with Grace and he still brought the most amazing bunches of flowers. Another 20 years of potential happiness just slipped past. What a loss, what a shame, what a waste!

Grace reached 98 and never married, despite all of Tom’s great efforts.

Yes, this story reminds us that it is so easy to let opportunity slip by without grabbing it!

One of my favourite Dr Seuss stories is Oh, The Places You’ll Go! In an extract from this story Dr Seuss observes that many people spend too much of their life just waiting:

Waiting for a train to go

or a bus to come, or a plane to go

or the mail to come, or the rain to go

or the phone to ruing, or the snow to snow

or waiting around for a Yes or No

or waiting for their hair to grow.

Everyone is just waiting.

The Roman philosopher Lucius Seneca once wrote an essay entitled On the Shortness of Time. In his essay Seneca states:

“It’s not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste a lot of it.”

Perhaps this is the origin of Carpe Diem, or Seize the Day. When we live by the Carpe Diem mantra of seizing the day, life becomes too important and too vital to waste even a single breath doing the things that are not in sync with the values we live by.

So be encouraged to seize the day in 2017. Take a balanced scorecard approach to life by including time for intellectual development, physical activity, social and cultural enrichment and spiritual growth. Engage in opportunities for service too.

Remember the story of Tom and Grace – don’t let opportunity slip by without grabbing it.

And as Dr Seuss reminds us, don’t spend your life waiting!