slow dance

a friend sent me this.....

Have you ever watched kids

On a merry-go-round?

Or listened to the rain

Slapping on the ground?

Ever followed a butterfly's erratic flight?

Or gazed at the sun into the fading night?

You better slow down.

Don't dance so fast.

Time is short.

The music won't last.

Do you run through each day

On the fly?

When you ask

How are you?

Do you hear the reply?

When the day is done!

Do you lie in your bed

With the next hundred chores

Running through your head?

You'd better slow down

Don't dance so fast.

Time is short.

The music won't last.

Ever told your child,

We'll do it tomorrow?

And in your haste,

Not see his sorrow?

Ever lost touch,

Let a good friendship die

Cause you never had time

To call and say,"Hi"

You'd better slow down. D

on't dance so fast.

Time is short.

The music won't last.

When you run so fast to get somewhere

You miss half the fun of getting there.

When you worry and hurry through your day,

It is like an unopened gift....

Thrown away.

Life is not a race.

Do take it slower

Hear the music

Before the song is over.

this poem was written by a young girl stricken with terminal cancer and a limited extension to her life. the words are beautiful, the message strong. what jars me the most is how relevant it is to my life right now, as if the words are written for my eyes. this came as one of those chain-letter mail and being the cynic that i have always been, i take the story with an ounce of salt. however, the thruth in the story is irrelevant here, perhaps most important is the gentle reminder for me to slow down.

this year has been most troublesome for me, as some of you know. i have lost something very dear and irreplaceable, something that i never knew mean so much to me, something that i never appreciated before it was gone. the regret. the sadness. the frustration. the anger. the hopelessness. a multitude of feelings that i have never had to experience. you will never be able to truly grasp my feeling unless you have gone through it personally.

without knowing, the scarring experience has subconsciously pushed me to live everyday harder; to play harder, to work harder and to live life a little harder. deep down there is this nagging feeling that i may be skimming over life, but it is so hard to resist this natural tendency. it's hard to slow down once the wagon has started.

i am guilty of all the things she said. i cannot remember the countless times i've told my kids 'we'll do it tomorrow', only to forget about it. running through next day's schedule just as i am retiring for the night seems like second nature to me now and the last time i remember sitting idly watching kids play was more than a decade back. i always seem to be rushing through today's event in anticipation of tomorrow's.

let this be my wake-up alarm for today.

let this remind me to slow down and enjoy life as it pass.