I remember as a young lad, when I saw my elders, I thought 'cheez' are they old.

When I became a teen-ager, I thought that I was much smarter.

Well, now I'm that OLD-TIMER, and I'd like to pass off some advice to you.

Years ago, when I worked from dawn to dusk, I swore that when I retired I was going to spend a lot of time in bed, just relaxing.

Well, let me tell you, Life doesn't always work out like you plan it.

As a student, I almost always got my eight hours of sleep.
As a teen-ager, I often just lounged around the house.

But, when I grew up, went to work, got married, bought a house, had a family and untold bills, I never realized how great youth was.
Sleep became a luxury.

When I was driving truck, ever day I'd pass an old codger, sitting on his porch, puffing on his pipe; at 5:30 in the morning.
I wondered why anyone would get up that early when you could just lie around.
That was NEVER going to happen to me.

Well, the years have gone by, and here I sit, not able to smoke anymore but early in the morning, just looking out the window.
Life doesn't always work out like you plan it.

I discovered an important fact that you can plan on happening, without any effort.

As you age, your sleep time diminishes.
What, at one time, was eight hours sleep becomes smaller and smaller.

Now that the Golden-Years have arrived, and you can sleep till noon; you find yourself up before the sun, just looking out the window.
Life doesn't always work out like you plan it.

In a way, I guess GOD knows what he's doing. Let me explain.

If you always got your eight hours of sleep, by the time you are SIXTY, you've spent TWENTY years in bed. Just relaxing. ( a THIRD of your life)
When you get my age, you would have spent TWENTY-FIVE years, just resting.

I remember reading somewhere that each day is like a bank account. Look at each second as something valuable. Every day, GOD deposits 86,400 SECONDS into your bank account. Every night, you loose all.
BUT, each morning your account is replenished.

So, you have a choice (GOD always gives us a choice). You can waste your time, just relaxing, or you can spend your gift wisely.

Someone once said, "Stop and smell the roses." This is a great idea, but don't waste time smelling them all. A bee might sting you.

Invest your riches wisely. Use those valuable seconds to spend with your family and friends.
Do someone a favor.
Smile and greet a stranger.
Tell someone that you love them.
Always be willing to invest a little time to do a good deed.
If you need a friend, first you have to become one.
THANK GOD, EVERY NIGHT!

TWO LESS hours of sleep a night (from your usual eight) by age sixty, you will have gained an extra FIVE years to do something.

That BANK ACCOUNT will give you 31,536,000 of those valuable SECONDS, a YEAR.
In FIVE years, you will have an additional 157,680,000 SECONDS accumulated.

How will you invest this treasure? You can spend it, just sitting around, looking out the window, or spreading your newfound wealth around.

When my time comes to go before that GREAT ACCOUNTANT and HE opens up my ledger; I pray, NO, I KNOW that I tried to balance my account every night. How about YOU?

REMEMBER THAT LIFE DOESN'T ALWAYS WORK OUT LIKE YOU PLAN IT!

~Author~

Joe Pielmeier SR.
 Copyright 2 / 02 / '02

Used with permission.