A MEASURE IN TIME❤️

A MEASURE IN TIME

“As we get along in years, increasingly the thought arises; when will all this end?”

We don't know. Each day given to us is a gift, a gift to never forget to use well. Wasted days cannot be allowed in.


This morning I woke up to a snowy landscape, no sun to see like yesterday's, but the day was bright and living and it was my birthday. I wasn't going to write about it but that quickly changed when I received a treasured gift from my hubby.

I could have easily guessed his gift since being a difficult person to buy for, the typical card I receive as a birthday gift always contains money, but the true treasure was not the toonies and 100 dollar bills that filled the box, it was something else, it was a deeply buried story, a story about life.

Vaguely, I remembered a similar story Stan shared with me years ago and I knew where he got the idea for the memorable birthday gift he gave to me this morning; genius, I say. Love when he does these kinds of things, so romantic, I think.


Back in the day when Stan worked at Domtar a fellow co-worker had shared with him his analogy on life as they sat at a picnic table close enough to hear the sound of the Chaudiere Falls rushing into the Ottawa river, drowning the noise of the paper machines inside the mill. Serge Robitaille told Stan what made his decision to call it quits and retire. “He pulled out his pipe fitter's measuring tape and holding it to a number that marked his years gone by he said in a French accent, “I have everything, maybe that is what I have left, pointing to the remaining tape measure.” Stan never forgot the story nor did I and you then look at your own life a little bit different.

So, Stan's story today is not conveyed through a measuring tape but through money. He gave me 62 toonies inside a treasure chest, each toonie signifying a year of my life. The golden nugget roll containing 13 toonies is to use as a measure in time. For the next 13 years, (just happens to be my lucky number ), I will take a toonie on my birthday and buy myself a Tim Horton's coffee. If we are both here in 13 years, Stan will simply refill the Treasure Chest for another 13, maybe? And if one of us is gone before the 13 years then the other will continue in their honor remembering the life we shared. For every year, the goal is to do what your heart desires, dream the dreams you want to dream and make them happen.

Those 13 coins, each will symbolize a year to live by in the best imaginable way possible.



And now I leave you with this to reflect upon...

















The Dream of Life - Alan Watts

So then… Let’s suppose that you were able, every night, to dream any dream you wanted to dream. And you could, for example, have the power within one night to dream 75 years of time. Or any length of time you wanted to have. And you would, naturally, as you began on this adventure of dreams, fulfill all your wishes. You would have every kind of pleasure. And after several nights of seventy-five years of total pleasure each you would say, “Well, that was pretty great! But now let’s have a surprise.” “Let’s have a dream which isn’t under control. Where something is going to happen to me but I don’t know what it’s going to be.” And you would dig that, and come out of that and say, “Wow, that was a close shave, wasn’t it?” Then you would get more and more adventurous. And you would make further and further gambles as to what you would dream. And finally, you would dream where you are now.


p.s. Thanks, Stan❤️




A Measure In Time ~ Part 2


A Souvenir of my 62nd birthday. I just received this poem my husband wrote for me as part of the gift I received on Sunday. He doesn't think real men buy flowers but I think he is trying very hard to be romantic, which I appreciate and love. Thanks, Stan....cute


Analogy of Life

It happened so many years ago
Back at the paper mill
Where at a picnic table
Serge brought me through the drill
He took his tattered tape measure
From his worn and aging belt
Pulled out some tape onto the ground
And told me how he felt
He pinched it off at fifty-five
And stated “I got dat”
Then pulled out another foot or so
For the remaining life, he’d have
The Frenchman made a lot of sense
In dealing with his strife
As he gave me his own version
Of his analogy of life
Now many decades later
His words all still ring true
For March tenth, two thousand nineteen
Annabelle turned sixty-two
We gathered up some toonies
Sixty-two to be exact
Placed them in a treasure chest
But something else had lacked
Emma added thirteen more
To make it seventy-five
So Annabelle could compare what’s left
And thank god to be alive
I made a pact with Annabelle
A planned out rendezvous
To add another twenty-five
In two thousand thirty-two
Happy Birthday Anna

Stan