tramsey Loc: Texas

"Life is not a journey to the grave arriving safely in a pretty, well preserved body,
but rather arriving in a side-ways skid, thoroughly used up, worn out, loudly proclaiming:

WOW!!!... What a ride!!!"


A thought that crossed my mind as I was hobbling to the computer this morning

rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona

Life is two dates and a dash between them. Make the most of that dash.
--Bob

Ed48 Loc: Superior, Wisconsin

WOW----WHAT A RIDE!
4 dashes to make the most of it
Ed48

BBurns Loc: South Bay, California

Beard43 Loc: End of the Oregon Trail

Everyone is born and everyone dies. It's what you do in between that really matters.

Ron

Curmudgeon Loc: SE Arizona

What a long, strange trip it's been
Jerry Garcia

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

Exactly what I was thinking.

Wallen Loc: Middle Earth

Make it so that if asked you can say "yeah, it was worth it".

jaymatt Loc: Alexandria, Indiana

Bridges Loc: Memphis, Charleston SC, now Nazareth PA

These are the lyrics to one of my favorite CSNY songs. It is called Thoroughfare Gap. Check it out on Youtube it is a very nice listen. It compares life to a train ride and I like the declaration at the end of the song that what really matters is not how far we've come or the destination, but the ride.

Sometimes I Consider My Pace
I'm Reminded Of A Train Gathering Speed
For The Climb To The Pass
In Whose Shadow It Already Lies

A Small Metal Dragon Approaching
The Ever-Present Ascending Rise
To The Seventh Mountain
Reeling And Snaking And Leaping

It Seems Like It Wants To Come Loose
From Its Path Cast In Iron
But She Can't Slow Down Now
As The Earth Has Presented

A New Crest To Reach
Without Barely A Rest
From The Last One
And You Wonder Just What Lies Beyond

Though You've Been There Before
And Forget About The Effort And The Strain
Always Ascending
Each Yard Adds A Mile

To The Never-ending Pull
Of The Steepening Grade
That's Before You
A Valley, A Forest, A Desert, A Stream

With An Oversized Bridge
For The Trickle There Beneath
You Remember The Torrent
It Turned To Last Spring

From The Snows Melting Fast
And The River It Became
In The Summer
Perhaps It Is Ruined

From A Fire That Has Scorched It
So Badly That Nothing
Will Grow Without Rain
To Wash Away The Blackened Soil

Now Useless Till Called Upon Again
In A Future As Twisted And Far Away
As The Next Range Of Mountains
So Take It As Far As You See

And Beyond
With Eyes You Don't Use Enough
Gather Up Strength
As Thoroughfare Gap

Will Await You Forever
You're Seeking To Get There
For Even Before
It's No Matter

No Distance
It's The Ride

chikid68 Loc: Tennesse USA

I see that I am not the only one familiar with that poem.

chikid68 Loc: Tennesse USA

The Dash Poem (By Linda Ellis)
I read of a man who stood to speak
At the funeral of a friend
He referred to the dates on the tombstone
From the beginning...to the end

He noted that first came the date of birth
And spoke the following date with tears,
But he said what mattered most of all
Was the dash between those years

For that dash represents all the time
That they spent alive on earth.
And now only those who loved them
Know what that little line is worth

For it matters not, how much we own,
The cars...the house...the cash.
What matters is how we live and love
And how we spend our dash.

So, think about this long and hard.
Are there things you'd like to change?
For you never know how much time is left
That can still be rearranged.

If we could just slow down enough
To consider what's true and real
And always try to understand
The way other people feel.

And be less quick to anger
And show appreciation more
And love the people in our lives
Like we've never loved before.

If we treat each other with respect
And more often wear a smile,
Remembering this special dash
Might only last a little while

So, when your eulogy is being read
With your life's actions to rehash...
Would you be proud of the things they say
About how you spent YOUR dash?

sippyjug104 Loc: Missouri

"I'm not afraid of death; I just don't want to be there when it happens." - Woody Allen

Toby

Well said. Your thoughts remind me of a message I saw years ago. Hope you do not mind my posting it here.

THE STATION
By Robert Hastings

Tucked away in our subconscious is an idyllic vision. We see ourselves on a long trip that spans the continent. We are traveling by train. Out the windows we drink in the passing scene of cars on nearby highways, of children waving at a crossing, of cattle grazing on a distant hillside, of smoke pouring from a power plant, of row upon row of corn and wheat, of flatlands and valleys, of mountains and rolling hillsides, of city skylines and village halls.

But uppermost in our minds is the final destination. On a certain day at a certain hour we will pull into a station. Bands will be playing and flags waving. Once we get there, so many wonderful dreams will come true and the pieces of our lives will fit together like a completed jigsaw puzzle. How restlessly we pace the aisles, damning the minutes for loitering -- waiting, waiting, waiting for the station.

"When we reach the station, that will be it!" we cry. "When I'm 18." "When I buy a new 450 SL Mercedes Benz!" "When I put the last kid through college." "When I have paid off the mortgage'" "When I reach the age of retirement, I shall
live happily ever after!"

Sooner or later we must realize there is no station, no one place to arrive at once and for all. The true joy of life is the trip. The station is only a dream. It constantly outdistances us.

"Relish the moment" is a good motto, especially when coupled with Psalm 118:24: "This is the day the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it." It isn't the burdens of today that drives men mad. It is the regrets over yesterday and the fear of tomorrow. Regret and fear are the twin thieves who rob us of today.

So, stop pacing the aisles and counting the miles. Instead, climb more mountains, eat more ice cream, go barefoot more often, swim more rivers, watch more sunsets, laugh more, cry less. Life must be lived as we go along. The station will come soon enough.

Jtittsworth Loc: Tampa

I told my wife of 44 years, “I’ll see you on the other side; if there is a other side. If not, it’s been a hell of a ride—thank you!