Routines

Photo credit: xenia from morguefile.com

After a while the body doesn't want to work.

When the alarm clock rings in the morning

the body refuses to get up. "You go to work if you're so

keen,"

it says. "Me, I'm going back to sleep."

I have to nudge it in the ribs to get it out of bed.

If I had my way I'd just leave you here, I tell it

as it stands blinking. But I need you to carry your end of

the load.

I take the body into the bathroom

intending to start the day as usual with a healthy dump.

But the body refuses to perform.

Come on, come on, I say between my teeth.

Produce, damn you. It's getting late.

"Listen, this is all your idea," the body says.

"If you want some turds so badly you provide 'em.

I'd just as soon be back in bed."

I give up, flush, wash and go make breakfast.

Pretty soon I'm at work. All goes smoothly enough

until the first break. I open my lunchpail

and start to munch on some cookies and milk.

"Cut that out," the body says, burping loudly.

"It's only a couple of hours since breakfast.

And two hours from this will be lunch, and two hours after

that

will be the afternoon break. I'm not a machine

you can force-feed every two hours.

And it was the same yesterday, too...."

I hurriedly stuff an apple in its mouth to shut it up.

By four o'clock the body is tired

and even more surly. It will hardly speak to me

as I drive home. I bathe it, let it lounge around.

After supper it regains some of its good spirits.

But as soon as I get ready for bed it starts to make trouble.

Look, I tell it, I've explained this over and over.

I know it's only ten o'clock but we have to be up in eight

hours.

If you don't get enough rest, you'll be dragging around all

day

tomorrow again, cranky and irritable.

"I don't care," the body says. "It's too early.

When do I get to have any fun? If you want to sleep

go right ahead. I'm going to lie here wide awake

until I feel good and ready to pass out."

It is hours before I manage to convince it to fall asleep.

And only a few hours after that the alarm clock sounds again.

"Must be for you," the body murmurs. "You answer it."

The body rolls over. Furious, and without saying a word,

I grab one of its feet and begin to yank it toward the edge

of

the bed.

~ Tom Wayman

____________________________________________________________

Never again clutter your days or nights with so many menial and unimportant things that you have no time to accept a real challenge when it comes along. This applies to play as well as work. A day merely survived is no cause for celebration. You are not here to fritter away your precious hours when you have the ability to accomplish so much by making a slight change in your routine. No more busy work. No more hiding from success. Leave time, leave space, to grow. Now. Now! Not tomorrow! ~ Og Mandino

Routines

Photo credit: xenia from morguefile.com

After a while the body doesn't want to work.

When the alarm clock rings in the morning

the body refuses to get up. "You go to work if you're so

keen,"

it says. "Me, I'm going back to sleep."

I have to nudge it in the ribs to get it out of bed.

If I had my way I'd just leave you here, I tell it

as it stands blinking. But I need you to carry your end of

the load.

I take the body into the bathroom

intending to start the day as usual with a healthy dump.

But the body refuses to perform.

Come on, come on, I say between my teeth.

Produce, damn you. It's getting late.

"Listen, this is all your idea," the body says.

"If you want some turds so badly you provide 'em.

I'd just as soon be back in bed."

I give up, flush, wash and go make breakfast.

Pretty soon I'm at work. All goes smoothly enough

until the first break. I open my lunchpail

and start to munch on some cookies and milk.

"Cut that out," the body says, burping loudly.

"It's only a couple of hours since breakfast.

And two hours from this will be lunch, and two hours after

that

will be the afternoon break. I'm not a machine

you can force-feed every two hours.

And it was the same yesterday, too...."

I hurriedly stuff an apple in its mouth to shut it up.

By four o'clock the body is tired

and even more surly. It will hardly speak to me

as I drive home. I bathe it, let it lounge around.

After supper it regains some of its good spirits.

But as soon as I get ready for bed it starts to make trouble.

Look, I tell it, I've explained this over and over.

I know it's only ten o'clock but we have to be up in eight

hours.

If you don't get enough rest, you'll be dragging around all

day

tomorrow again, cranky and irritable.

"I don't care," the body says. "It's too early.

When do I get to have any fun? If you want to sleep

go right ahead. I'm going to lie here wide awake

until I feel good and ready to pass out."

It is hours before I manage to convince it to fall asleep.

And only a few hours after that the alarm clock sounds again.

"Must be for you," the body murmurs. "You answer it."

The body rolls over. Furious, and without saying a word,

I grab one of its feet and begin to yank it toward the edge

of

the bed.

~ Tom Wayman

____________________________________________________________

Never again clutter your days or nights with so many menial and unimportant things that you have no time to accept a real challenge when it comes along. This applies to play as well as work. A day merely survived is no cause for celebration. You are not here to fritter away your precious hours when you have the ability to accomplish so much by making a slight change in your routine. No more busy work. No more hiding from success. Leave time, leave space, to grow. Now. Now! Not tomorrow! ~ Og Mandino

Last August Hours Before the Year 2000

Image: graur razvan ionut/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Spun silk of mercy,
long-limbed afternoon,
sun urging purple blossoms from baked stems.
What better blessing than to move without hurry
under trees?
Lugging a bucket to the rose that became a twining
house by now, roof and walls of vine—
you could live inside this rose.
Pouring a slow stream around the
ancient pineapple crowned with spiky fruit,
I thought we would feel old
by the year 2000.
Walt Disney thought cars would fly.

 What a drama to keep thinking the last summer
the last birthday
before the calendar turns to zeroes.
My neighbor says anything we plant
in September takes hold.
She’s lining pots of little grasses by her walk.

 I want to know the root goes deep
on all that came before,
you could lay a soaker hose across
your whole life and know
there was something
under layers of packed summer earth
and dry blown grass.

 ~ Naomi Shihab Nye
_______________________________________

Live this day as if it will be your last. Remember that you will only find ''tomorrow'' on the calendars of fools. Forget yesterday's defeats and ignore the problems of tomorrow.

This is it. Doomsday. All you have. Make it the best day of your year.

The saddest words you can ever utter are, ''If I had my life to live over again.''

Take the baton, now. Run with it! This is your day!

Beginning today, treat everyone you meet, friend or foe, loved one or stranger, as if they were going to be dead at midnight. Extend to each person, no matter how trivial the contact, all the care and kindness and understanding and love that you can muster, and do it with no thought of any reward. Your life will never be the same again. 

~ Og Mandino

Last August Hours Before the Year 2000

Image: graur razvan ionut/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Spun silk of mercy,
long-limbed afternoon,
sun urging purple blossoms from baked stems.
What better blessing than to move without hurry
under trees?
Lugging a bucket to the rose that became a twining
house by now, roof and walls of vine—
you could live inside this rose.
Pouring a slow stream around the
ancient pineapple crowned with spiky fruit,
I thought we would feel old
by the year 2000.
Walt Disney thought cars would fly.

 What a drama to keep thinking the last summer
the last birthday
before the calendar turns to zeroes.
My neighbor says anything we plant
in September takes hold.
She’s lining pots of little grasses by her walk.

 I want to know the root goes deep
on all that came before,
you could lay a soaker hose across
your whole life and know
there was something
under layers of packed summer earth
and dry blown grass.

 ~ Naomi Shihab Nye
_______________________________________

Live this day as if it will be your last. Remember that you will only find ''tomorrow'' on the calendars of fools. Forget yesterday's defeats and ignore the problems of tomorrow.

This is it. Doomsday. All you have. Make it the best day of your year.

The saddest words you can ever utter are, ''If I had my life to live over again.''

Take the baton, now. Run with it! This is your day!

Beginning today, treat everyone you meet, friend or foe, loved one or stranger, as if they were going to be dead at midnight. Extend to each person, no matter how trivial the contact, all the care and kindness and understanding and love that you can muster, and do it with no thought of any reward. Your life will never be the same again. 

~ Og Mandino

Laugh at yourself and at life. Not in the spirit of derision or whining self-pity, but as a remedy, a miracle drug, that will ease your pain, cure your depression, and help you to put in perspective that seemingly terrible defeat and worry with laughter at your predicaments, thus freeing your mind to think clearly toward the solution that is certain to come. Never take yourself too seriously. ~ Og Mandino

Laugh at yourself and at life. Not in the spirit of derision or whining self-pity, but as a remedy, a miracle drug, that will ease your pain, cure your depression, and help you to put in perspective that seemingly terrible defeat and worry with laughter at your predicaments, thus freeing your mind to think clearly toward the solution that is certain to come. Never take yourself too seriously. ~ Og Mandino