Then he told me his sister about my age was in her last days in hospice dying of cancer. He had been spending time with her. He knew she had been sick but had no idea it was terminal. She had been a nurse in Cleveland and worked hard all her life. No vacations, working hard.
Now with imminent death she made time to do some things she always wanted to do. His sister had spent the last year taking all kinds of life extending things and enjoying a bit of travel. I said made time. She didn't make time. She reclaimed it.
Biblically we are told to redeem the time. Get it back from the tyranny of busy.
The same is true of Money. We think because we have little or it's scarce we can do nothing. It freezes our lives.
Well, I'm NOT dying of anything other than the disease called terminal humanity. 3 score and 10, 20 or maybe 30 which is how much my genetics proclaims I will have. I have tried to abuse my body so maybe 29.
There are two great truths reinforced this morning by my conversation with Doug:
1. We always have enough time to do the things we want to do. When people say they don't have enough time, what they are really saying is I don't want to. Oh, I don't mean to be unkind (see earlier post on kindness). But we have time to do what we want to. Deciding that and doing it are acts of true life.
2. We always have the money to do what is necessary or important to us. We find a way. If your child or spouse walked in with a broken arm or a hole in their head from a gunshot wound, would you say."We don't have the money right now to take care of that, so you'll just have to suffer". Of course not. We would find the money one way or another. The fact that we don't have the money to do certain things is an indicator of it's importance to us. We have whatever money we need for the things that must be done. If it's important we'll find the money. In America in particular.
So, in my most KIND way possible, don't ever say to me, I don't have the time or the money to do that important thing. You do and you know it. You take time and find the money to do whatever is important to you. If you don't, it wasn't that important. We get done what is important to us. We find a way. Heck and High Water won't stop us.
I'll get just a little political here. I liked Bill Clinton. Think it would have been fun to hang out with him. Think he would have been a fascinating night on the town talking about all kinds of things. I think he's a bright man.
BUT
I'll never forget how as President he kept telling all of us that "I've never worked so hard in all my life". I just can't get anything with this uncooperative congress (1994 Republican takeover). So for the years from 95-2001 he just marked time. Complained about things and did little.
I submit, that was all Billoney. If he had wanted to cooperate with and work with Congress he could have made things happen. Congress didn't help much (Impeachment) and Clinton leaned into the punch (Definition of Is is).
For the most part, Clinton was a decent President who could have been great if he had just moved out with courage and boldness.
In business as CEO of a couple large Corporations I had minions who constantly complained about how hard it was, things weren't happening, people weren't cooperating, they didn't have time, they didn't have money.
I had one tactic I always used on these folks. I said, "If I could take away that hindrance can you do the job?" In other word I called their bluff. Most of the time the real hidden agenda came out. We went to war a couple times. And, in the end I had to fire them or they quit. A few fessed up and stepped up to the plate, did the job and they outlasted me.
Life requires doing what's right and not what's easy.
NO EXCUSES. If you were assigned a job to do and don't do it, the man in the mirror is the problem. I'm not the sports fan my friend Barry Kolb is but, I suspect this is an area of agreement I would have in spades with Bobby Knight based on what I read in Barry's Blog. I need to get one of those armbands that asks the question, WWBD? What Would Bobby Do? Then do that. How much do you want this Coach Sheldon in my high school used to ask. If we wanted it bad enough we got it. Jesus asked the Rich Young Ruler how much do you want it? The King who threw a wedding feast ended up with a lot of people who were pretty busy with Oxen, Land and Marriage problems. They missed out. Life's like that, enough excuses as to why you can't do something and life passes you by.
Life's too short to do it stupid. Get it done. Or, is the truth you really don't want to?
Sorry, kid. You got the gift but looks like you're waiting for something. (the Matrix: spoken to Neo by the Oracle in the Kitchen).
Truth is Kind.
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