Monday 24 November 2008

Value every minute

I love this poem. It's so true and incredibly inspiring. The author is unknown, so I'll plagarise it here:
To realise the value of one year: Ask a student who has failed a final exam.
To realise the value of one month: Ask a mother who has given birth to a premature baby.
To realise the value of one week: Ask an editor of a weekly newspaper.
To realise the value of one hour: Ask the lovers who are waiting to meet.
To realise the value of one minute: Ask the person who has missed the train, bus or plane.
To realise the value of one second: Ask a person who has survived an accident.
To realise the value of one millisecond: Ask the person who has won a silver medal in the Olympics.
Time waits for no one.
Treasure every moment you have. You will treasure it even more when you can share it with someone special.
OK, enough of the sentimentality. Café Chick's motives here are actually quite cheeky ...

Yesterday, I experienced a twist to this poem. I was invited to a friend's daughter's christening. It wasn't exactly something I was looking forward to; their first daughter's christening had its share of family dramas, which I'm thankful are mostly resolved now, but that's not the reason I was hoping to wrangle out of the invitation.

I really wasn't looking forward to facing the judge, jury, or any other members of the So have you sorted your life out yet? No? Well, you should just ... otherwise it's all your own fault Squad. This honorary society was formed a number of years ago and is made up of mostly school-friends, along with a collection of other acquaintances, some of whom know my family (and barely know me), but each have in common one or more (or a clean sweep!) of the following (none of which I have):
  • a husband
  • child/ren
  • a picket fence and matching lifestyle in suburbia.
I had already planned to get my sweetie off the hook by saying he was at motorsport that day. (I actually thought he was going to be, but kept to the story even after we realised he wasn't.) I was trying to manufacture a way to put in an appearance, then leave as soon as I could after the service. My 'reason' turned out to be genuine; I was all set for the christening at 3.30pm.

Except it started at 3pm. Arriving at what I thought was ten minutes early, I gritted my teeth and prepared myself to walk into the onslaught, only to find everyone vacating the church and heading downstairs to the hall for afternoon tea. The service had finished; apparently it went well. Hmm, now what to do?

I was naughty. I popped downstairs, chatted briefly to various people from the squad (as well as the baby's parents and grandparents), then said my goodbyes and quietly slipped out. So far, I don't think anyone realised I missed the actual service; they just seem to think they didn't see me at the church because I was sitting at the back, or something! Talk about the value of twenty minutes ...

And that's the way it's going to stay. ;-)

6 comments:

Caffeinated Weka said...

BTW, Kellee - I can never seem to leave comments on your blog, and have tried several times. Anyone else have this problem?

Random Thoughts said...

You are not alone when it comes to not wanting to facing the judge, jury, or any other members of the So have you sorted your life out yet group. A few members of my family are the biggest offenders of the questions. I have told my family my views, that I do not ever want to feel as if I pressured my sweetie into marriage. I do not want to be the one to propose. Love and Happiness mean more to me than a formal ceremony. This particular member of my family is married to her third husband (she is not yet 40 years old). BUT today I went to a new doctor, and as part of the questions he asked, are you married, divorced, single, do you live alone, no? How long have you lived with your boyfriend? What's happening there why aren't you getting married? Yup the doctor too! Go figure!

Caffeinated Weka said...

Gosh, earlier in the year, my doctor did the same ... and when she didn't get all the answers she wanted from me, she bailed up my sweetie! I know that time waits for no-one, and she was approaching her questions from a medical perspective, but heck - clocks tick; get over it. As for everyone else? They have no excuse ...

Anonymous said...

I used to hate having to deal with that jury. Now instead of getting the when are you going to get married, I get the when are you going to have a baby. Good job on avoiding all that! I'm all for it if you can!

Kelly said...

It seems the "sort out your life" group is universal - my boyfriend & I had the same grilling over the weekend when my family came up to help us move house. My dad even started dropping hints that his health is now beginning to fail and he reckons he only has 10 years left (he's only 62!!) and my beloved and I need to hurry up and walk down the aisle. Talk about pressure!

Unknown said...

Fabulous post - timing is everything :)