TAKE HOLD OF EVERY MOMENT

TAKE HOLD OF EVERY MOMENT
(a friend emailed me this article)

A friend of mine opened

his wife's underwear drawer

and picked up
a silk paper wrapped package:
"This, - he said -
isn't any ordinary package."
He unwrapped the box
and stared at both
the silk paper and the box.
"She got this the first time
we went to New York,
8 or 9 years ago.

She has never put it on.

Was saving it for a special occasion.

Well, I guess this is it.

He got near the bed

and placed the gift box
next to the other clothings
he was taking to the funeral house,
his wife had just died.
He turned to me and said:
"Never save something for a special occasion.
Every day
in your life
is a special occasion".
I still think those words

changed my life.
Now I read more
and clean less.
I sit on the porch
without worrying about anything.
I spend more time with my family,
and less at work.
I understood that life
should be a source of experience
to be lived up to,
not survived through.
I no longer keep anything.
I use crystal glasses every day.
I'll wear new clothes
to go to the supermarket,
if i feel like it.
I don't save my special perfume
for special occasions,
I use it whenever I want to.
The words
"Someday..."
and "One Day..."
are fading away
from my dictionary.
If it's worth seeing,
listening or doing,
I want to see,
listen or do it now.
I don't know
what my friend's wife
would have done
if she knew
she wouldn't
be there
the next morning,
this nobody can tell.
I think she
might have called
her relatives
and closest friends.
She might call old friends
to make peace
over past quarrels.
I'd like to think she would
go out for Chinese,
her favourite food.
It's these small things
that I would regret not doing,
if I knew my time had come.
I would regret it,
because I would no longer
see the friends I would meet,
letters that i wanted to write
"One of this days".
I would regret and feel sad,
because I didn't say
to my brothers and sons,
not times enough at least,
how much I love them.
Now, I try not to delay,
postpone or keep anything
that could bring
laughter and joy
into our lives.
And, on each morning,
I say to myself that
this could be a special day.
Each day,
each hour,
each minute,
is special.