The older I get, the more I enjoy Saturday mornings.  Perhaps it’s the quiet solitude that comes with being the first to rise, or maybe it’s the unbounded joy of not having to be at work. Either way, the first few hours of a Saturday morning are most enjoyable.

A few weeks ago, I was shuffling toward the basement… with a steaming cup of coffee in one hand and the morning paper in the other.  What began as a typical Saturday morning, turning into one of those lessons that life seems to hand you from time to time.  Let me tell you about it.

I turned the dial up into the phone portion of the band on my ham radio in order to listen to a Saturday morning swap net.  Along the way, I came across an older sounding chap, with a tremendous signal and a golden voice.  You know the kind, he sounded like he should be in the broadcasting business.  He was telling whoever he was talking with something about “a thousand marbles.”

I was intrigued and stopped to listen to what he had to say. “Well, Tom, it sure sounds like you’re busy with your job.  I’m sure they pay you well but it’s a shame you have to be away from home and your family so much.  Hard to believe a young fellow should have to work sixty or seventy hours a week to make ends meet.  To bad you missed your daughter’s dance recital.”

He continued.  “Let me tell you something, Tom, something that has helped me keep a good perspective on my own priorities.”  And that’s when he began to explain his theory of a “thousand marbles.”

“You see, I sat down one day and did a little arithmetic.  The average person lives about seventy-five years.  I know, some live more and some live less, but on average, folks live about seventy-five years.

“Now then, I multiplied 75 times 52 and I came up with 3,900 which is the number of Saturdays that the average person has in their entire lifetime.  Now stick with me Tom, I’m getting to the important part.

“It took me until I was fifty-five years old to think about all this in any detail,” he went on, “and by that time I had live through over twenty-eight hundred Saturdays.  I got to thinking that if I lived to be seventy-five, I only had about a thousand of them left to enjoy.

“So I went to a toy store and bought every single marble they had.  I ended up having to visit three toy stores to round up 1,000 marbles. I took them home and put them inside a large, clear plastic container right here… next to my gear.  Every Saturday since then, I have taken one marble out and thrown it away.

“I found that by watching the marbles diminish, I focussed more on the really important things in life.  There is nothing like watching your time here on this earth run out to help get your priorities straight.

“Now let me tell you one last thing before I sign off with you and take my lovely wife out for breakfast.  This morning, I took the very last marble out of the container.  I figure if I make it until next Saturday then I have been given a little extra time.  And the one thing we can all use is a little more time.

“It was nice to meet you, Tom. I hope you spend more time with your family, and I hope to meet you again here on the band.”

You could have heard a pin drop on the band when this fellow signed off.  I guess he gave us all a lot to think about.  I had planned to work on the antenna that morning, and then I was going to meet up with a few hams to work on the next club newsletter.  Instead, I went upstairs and woke my wife up with a kiss.  “C’mon honey, I’m taking you and the kids to breakfast.”

“What brought this on?” she asked with a smile.

“Oh, nothing special, it’s just been a long time since we spend a Saturday together with the kids.  Hey, can we stop at a toy store while we’re out? I need to buy some marbles.”

“Yes, it has.”

So how’s it been for you?

“I’m ok.”

Surely you are. Anything else?

“I don’t know. Should there be?”

Is there something that you would like to tell me?

“No.”

Is there something that you want me to tell you?

Do.

Act.

Be.

Don’t hold back.

What’s stopping you?

Everything that you need will be granted.

Believe.

Seemingly Inadvertently but Realistically Precessionally.

Everything that needs to happen will happen.

Find the flow.

Use the flow.

Grow the flow.

Find the magic that resides deep within.

Let that be manifest.

Go forth. Be the light you need to be.

That you were meant to shine.

Shine Forth.

Brighter than you ever thought possible.

Don’t hold back.

There can be no darkness.

As long as there is light.

Be that light.

That beacon in the night.

That steadfast flame.

The energy of love.

That essence of integrity.

Shine.

Aho!

“Stand Up For Singapore and join in at 8:22pm 9 August 2009 for the pledge.”

I’ve been in Singapore now since 1987 — that’s 22 years.  That’s a long time.  Singapore is 44 today, which means I’ve been around for half the time that Singapore has been independent.

It’s a fine place to live, no pun intended.  It’s pretty much home to me now.  And it’s definitely come a long way.

For a nation this size, for everything that it’s not, it’s got a lot to be proud of.  And against all odds, for all that it doesn’t have, there are many achievements to be counted.

Granted, there’s always a lot more that we can want, but if we ever step back to see the forest despite the trees, the big picture is an impressive one.

Singapore has done a grand thing.  It has created a stable and safe environment to live.  There is an abundance of opportunities for business.  And the future is not left to chance. 

For all the complaints that we have, we forget that for a nation this size, there is a lot to be grateful for.

We were having dinner, watching the parade on TV. At 8:22pm, my Singaporean friends stood up, with the rest of the nation and recited the pledge, unreservedly.

“We the citizens of Singapore,
pledge ourselves, as one united people,
regardless of race, language or religion,
to build a democratic society,
based on justice and equality,
so as to achieve happiness,
prosperity and progress for our nation.”

The little train that could.  Believe it.

A darn fine country, this.

Along upper thomson
Fully furnished with attached bath.
Includes SCV, Broadband Internet, maid cleans once a week.
$1000 a month nett, includes utilities.

Have you been half asleep?
And have you heard voices?
I’ve heard them calling my name.
Is this the sweet sound?
That calls the young sailors
They might be one and the same
I’ve heard it too many time to ignore it
There’s something I’m supposed to be

Someday we’ll find it
The rainbow connection
The lover, the dreamers and me

Kermit

Once in a while we get moved and reminded.  On how much we decide we want to do with this life, in this lifetime.

We know some of these people. Some who will do grand things and others who will do not so grand things but inevitably change the lives of people in ways more profound than we can imagine.  They keep the human race moving forward.  They inspire us and move us.

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

Marianne Williamson

“Our true purpose may forever remain obscure to you but if you commit yourself to the highest advantage of others, you can assume that you are fulfilling your true purpose.“

Buckminster “Bucky” Fuller

Same thoughts echoed in different ways.  Do the grand thing to the highest advantage of others.I believe deep inside we all simply want to do our best.  It will never be perfect.  But that’s the entire point.  To take that journey, and in the process, discover the person that I can become.  And the contributions that I would have made along the way.

And that would be sufficient.

Then again, a large part of it is very much determined by how we respond to each circumstance that we encounter, and how determined we are to come up on top, to overcome the most difficult of challenges.  But more than that, how we have to continue to acknowledge with humility, that we cannot get complacent either when we have overwhelming success because as much as it may be what we think we deserve, it’s definitely a lot more than we need.  In either case, count each as a blessing and another lesson in life, preparing us for far greater things to come.

Along the way, we meet great people along the way who will spur us on — nay-sayers who will provide the challenges and supporters who will keep us going.  And the most amazing program where I discovered what it is that I will do in my lifetime – Money&You®.

And I continue to be amazed each day.

So the secret is believing that good things do happen and that they can happen for you, and they will happen.

“Look at what’s happened to me.  I can’t believe it myself.  Suddenly I’m up on top of the world.  Could have been somebody else…”

Enjoy these moments, for many they will be.

Friendships don’t need a reason.  They are who life throws at us.

They reveal themselves when the time is right.

For a grander purpose.

But we have to look, or they will pass us by.

But it’s been 20 years since I left that city. 

I think I live an unexpected life.  I grew up with grandma, not unusual in itself, but hardly typical.  Looking back, I see my life as a whole series of coincidences and accidents of circumstance, there aren’t any significant parts of my life that could have been planned, that have made as much difference as the parts that have happened, unexpectedly.  I’ve been lucky though, I think that things could have turned out worse.

I was having a conversation with my uncle, the closest person that came to being a father to me, over the weekend — someone whom I have great respect for, whom I will say has been an extremely strong influence as well — in a series of conversations that had evolved through the years, that has gotten closer, bridging a “generation-gap” that had not been less apparent when I was growing up (sometimes I’m not sure if I have “grown-up”, but another discussion for another time), when he said “Adversity builds character”, as we discussed how life can be strange a lot of the time. 

That’s a phrase that I use, for myself and to people who sometimes come to me about “problems” that they have.  It’s all about our response. We decide how we want things to work out.  Not always in the way we would like, but unexpectedly, in a way that takes us a little further in life. 

I attended a Feng Shui workshop a couple of days ago, on how Feng Shui and our elements influence our lives.  At the end of the day, it seems that our lives are influenced a lot by our element, and time of birth, that sets of an entire series off events to be woven into a tapestry of life to come.  Some people are “luckier” than others, right time, right place.  Others have more challenging deals.  What is intriguing, is when two people who are born on the exact same date and time, who should for all reason have been given the same “luck bucket” whose lives turn out totally different.  It’s the unexpected life.  Two people can get the same luck-bucket but how they use it is entirely dependent on each of them.

We grow up shaped by expectations — our own and those that are imposed on us by well-meaning people around us.  We spend half our time fulfilling these expectations, and the other half resisting.  Sometimes things work out, sometimes they don’t.  But nothing ever prepares us for un-expectations.  Seemingly totally random events that cross our paths, sometimes when we are busiest meeting or resisting an overwhelming set of expectations already.

Sometimes good, sometimes not, but in either case, we are unprepared.  They are the little branches that fall into the stream that we have to jump over, and the roaring waterfalls at the edge of a mountain.  What do we do?

We ride them out.  

I’m sure we all have our stories to tell about these “unexpectations”.  Both the windfalls and the tragedies.  The joy, and the tears.  We don’t prepare for them because often, we can’t. 

I’ve had my share of unexpectations. Both good and bad — they have definitely been interesting and I don’t think I can really complain about how life has turned out.  I’ve had my share of tears but I’ve also had my share of “Look at what’s happened to me, I can’t believe it myself. Suddenly I’m up on top of the world, could have been somebody else.” moments.

I’m sure all of us have.  Be glad for them.

And everytime I think that life is really being unfair, I remember my gratitude stone and am really glad for my unexpected life.