Take Hold of Every Moment

A friend of mine opened his wife's drawer
and picked up a silk paper wrapped package:
"This, - he said - isn't any ordinary package."
He un-wrapped the box and stared at both the silk paper and the box.

"She got this the first time we went to New York, 9 or 10 years ago.
She had 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 clothing's he was taking to the funeral home,
his wife had just died.
He turned to me and said:"Never have something for a special occasion.
Every day in your life is a special occasion."

I still think those words changes 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 occasion 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 wife, brothers and sisters, son and daughters,
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.

If you read this on my blog, it's because someone cares for you
and because, probably, there's someone you care about.
If you're too busy to tell someone about this and
you say to yourself that you will tell someone "One of these days",
remember that "One day" is far away... or might never come...