No 13. Changing Lives through Dancing
By David Earl Woodbury
Friday, March 27, 2015
Time is Short!
You, enlightened, self-sufficient, self-governed, endowed with gifts
above your fellows, the world expects you to produce as well as to
consume, to add to and not to subtract from its store of good, to
build up and not to tear down, to ennoble and not degrade. The time
is short, the opportunity is great; therefore, crowd the hours with
the best that is in you.
— John Hibben, president of Princeton University, 1913 graduation address
The championships, the money, the color; all of these things linger
only in the memory. It is the spirit, the will to excel, the will to win; these are the things that endure.
— Vince Lombardi (1913-1970) American Football Coach
Don’t you hate it when you go to the fridge and reach in the back for a bag of lettuce. You’re so excited to find it and your hungry. You pull it out and feel “squish” and hold up a bag of sour, brown, lettuce goo. It’s 3 weeks past the expiration date. You don’t dare open it for the smell would permeate the whole house. You waited too late.
Opportunities are like produce. Use it or lose it. What about the old lemons and apples and bananas we find. How many sour gallons of milk have we thrown out? Yuck.
I love to come back from the market with fresh lettuce, tomatoes, apples, bananas, and then make a wonderful salad and have a perfect banana for my morning cereal with fresh milk. There’s nothing like fresh food. Buy it, use it quickly, enjoy it!
Take time to deliberate; but when the time for action arrives, stop thinking and go in.
— Andrew Jackson (1767-1845) 7th President of the United States
That’s how it is with life. We must take action. I have post notes everywhere (and a pair of glasses on every table) and everywhere a pen. I wake up from a deep sleep to write out my idea from my dream on a piece of paper. I have post notes all over my bathroom mirror, my office monitor, my fridge, my desk. Ideas are all over the place.
What I hate is the idea that I did not write down. The note that I cannot read and cannot remember. The lost opportunity, the lost inspiration, the lost moment. Grab hold of your ideas and make them come alive. If I live 50 more years, I will not have enough time to listen to all the music I love, to read all the books I crave, cook all the dishes I want to prepare, and meet all the people I want to meet all over the world. Life has to be lived NOW!
You want to dance? Learn ALL the dances. Come in for lessons as much as many times as you are able. Do it all. Live it all. Experience it all. Life is short.
There is no passion to be found playing small – in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living.-Nelson Mandela
If your ship doesn’t come in, swim out to it!– Jonathan Winters
Take a chance. Be a “fresh produce” kind of person. Live your life to the max. Take action today. We don’t know what tomorrow may bring. Today is the day to make life happen for you!
Peace,
David Woodbury