44 Million Minutes and Gratitude

I just love the song, “Live Like We’re Dying,” by Kris Allen.

It reminds me to be appreciative of what I have, because it could all be gone in an instant.

There are several powerful sentences in the song:

• “You never know a good thing ‘til it’s gone”
• “Why we think we are right when we are dead wrong”
• “If your life flashed before you, what would you wish you would’ve done”
• “Got to tell them why we love them while we have a chance to say”
• “Be careful who we let fall out of our lives”
• “How come we don’t say I love you enough, until it’s too late?”
• “We have to tell them that we love them while we’ve got a chance to say”
• “We never see a crash until it’s head-on”

The song reminds the listener that we have 86,400 seconds in a day “to turn it all around or throw it all away.”

Realistically, there is really not a lot that can be done within a mere second. However, one minute is another story.

You can do a lot with just one minute.

And, you get 1,440 of these to spend each day.

After some online research I learned that, according to the United States Social Security Administration, the average American will live to around 84 years of age. That equals 31,536,000 seconds or about 525,600 minutes each year.

Over a lifetime, you have the opportunity to spend over 44 million minutes.

Now, I realize that you and I have already used up a bunch of those minutes just learning to walk, read, eat, and get through school, but we still have many more remaining.

It is up to us to use them well.

So, what could you do with a minute? Here are a few ideas:

• Kiss your mate
• Call a friend
• Make an apology
• Send a thank you note
• Floss
• Write a love note
• Hug your kids
• Smell some flowers
• Kiss your mate again
• Pay a stranger a compliment
• Stretch
• Walk a flight of stairs
• Hold the door open for an elderly person
• Make an appointment for a mammogram
• Purge a couple of things from your closet
• Invite a friend to coffee
• Research the name of the nearest star (besides our sun)
• Tell a joke
• Read a poem

What about a collection of minutes? What could you accomplish with a bunch of minutes?

A few ideas:

• Start a new way of thinking
• Rekindle your relationship
• Research a new career
• Start a fitness program
• Continue a fitness program
• Read an article or two at Cherished Wives to inspire you

“Don’t say you don’t have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein.”
– H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

When we string together our moments of time, they have so much more potential than a mere moment. It’s your choice: give them power and meaning, or waste them.

You have only 44 million of them, so make your minutes count! And be grateful for each of them.

Make your minutes count and to gratitude, my friend!
Hugs,