"Life is what happens while we are busy making other plans."

-- Unknown

I got home about 9:00PM last nite after playing basketball. I had left my gym bag in the truck so I went back outside to fetch it.

As I did, I just stopped in my tracks out front of my house. I looked up into the sky, and saw a billion stars, and half a moon. It was just comfortable chilly, refreshing.

And I had to reflect - life IS good. A nice little house in the country, peaceful and quiet.

The wife is healthy again, after a bout with Hodgkins. And she loves me. Wow.

Even the fact that I'm playing basketball again is incredible. After a basketball knee injury and reconstructive surgery ten years ago, I played a few more years, but the knee slowly deteriorated to the point where it just wouldn't go. Well, after a few recent months on the gym nautilus machines, I decided to give it another try. So far, so good. hey, I'm no MJ, but its good to be able to run again.

As I stood there last nite it the dark but for the moonlight, I had to think "This is one of those moments in life that cannot be recaptured.

We often think that life has so much bad stuff for us. But I think thats only because we whiz past the good moments - moments that unless we PURPOSE in our hearts to find and recognize them, we'll too easily miss them. And that would be our loss.

God gives blessings and hardships - I FINALLY found one of His most precious earthly blessings - the perfect moment.

Here's hoping you may enjoy  many more moments like the one you described !

[beer]

Health is gold!  There is no happiness without it. God speed.

Speak for yourself.

Whenever I reflect back on my life all that comes to my mind is: WHAT IN THE HELL DID I DO TO DESERVE ALL OF THIS???? The only thing I can figure is that I must have done something very bad in a former life and am being punished in this entire lifetime for it.

I agree with you Imbrog|io.
It takes a lot of ignorance for some people to think that if their life if going perfectly
then everyone else's life is too.

"Life is a big black sucking hole of depression and disappointment."

That is the exact opposite of what you were feeling.  May you never have need to use this quote.  If you do make sure and give me credit.[:D]

Wow.  That's not how I took his post at all.

[:O]

Considering I almost bought it four months ago when a concrete #4 highway barrier was flipped into the air and in the path of our Suburban. It totally destroyed the car and we spun around four times.
After that it is all gravy for me.
[smoke]

I think you totally missed the point.  Any day you're not 6' under is a good day as far as I'm concerned.  I don't care how bad you think you've got it, there IS someone else out there who's got it a lot worse.  I think Garandman's point is simply to be thankful for what you have.

Life has been good to me roof over my head and food in the fridge.

WOW! The biggest problem I've
had recently was while out and about in public.
There was no men's room in sight and I had to
go really bad, but at the same time I was dying of thirst and I HAD to get a drink of water.
Not bad considering that this winter has been a long gray sunless one. Now the days are getting longer and the sun is coming out so the worst is behind. Hopefully the snow will melt, the ground will dry and the mosquitoes won't be so bad this year.

Just like a perfect Kodak moment.  More power to you!  May you keep clicking many more perfect moments!     [beer]   [beer]

-RoadDog

"Is life worth living? That's a question for an embryo...not a man."--Samuel Butler.

i hope you were smart enought to buy the water first then use the bottle as a portablr restroom[img]http://www.stopstart.fsnet.co.uk/smilie/jester.gif[/img]

My appreciation for life and all it has to offer only seems to increase when working on a clear, starfilled night or especially when watching the sun rise up over the Cascades. Simply awesome. I love nature.

I gotta agree with Garandman, the other moring I popped some corn and watched Full Metal Jacket. As it was ending the sun was coming up and I watched it out my backdoor. You can't buy that sh*t.

There is a lot of bad things happening in my life right now but I like to reflect on the good things that have happened over the years and the fact that I'm healthy have a job, home and a loving and supportive pro gun wife. Life is good and getting better.

I'm not even sure how to respond to a comment like this.

Tell ya what - at lunch today, I'll go out and smash myself in the head ten times with a hammer, so that I can put an end to my good fortune.

Will that make me less "ignorant??"

Sheesh. I'm sorry your life is not going good. Is it SO painful that you are incapable of appreciating a single moment in time when it IS going good, for yourself, or EVEN for someone else???

Intheblack where do you see, garandman saying, since "he had a perfect moment" than everybody else is having one?

I'm glad for garandman. He has faced some great adversity and instead of it making him sour and bitter, he can still enjoy what life has to offer.

I guess that's a big difference in some people. Some have the ability to take all the bad that life has tossed at them and still find a way to enjoy life. Other's let it destroy them.

(Edit addition)

Everyone has bad day's and maybe this was one for InTheBlack, when he made this comment.

If I had been on the Board when I was received news of (insert bad news here), would i have been sour, made rude comments and been a pain? Probably.

Ask someone that know's me and I'm sure they will tell you that I can be a "Class A - A*S" at times. We all have our moments. [:D]

I thought things for me were up and down until recently.  Mostly up, but some down.

Last Friday I saw a guy crash his motorcycle and die.

Yeah, things are pretty much UP for me.  Gotta appreciate that.  The ol' cliche about putting things in perspective is true.  Now when stupid stuff happens that pisses me off, I think of that other guy and "don't sweat the small stuff, and it's all small stuff."

[b]The Perfect Moment[/b]

The first time you do something that makes your parents proud, I mean really proud of you.

Hitting the game-winning home run instead of striking out as usual and becoming the hero, if just for a moment.

Holding your child for the first time as he looks into your eyes and holds your finger with his tiny little hands.

Recovering from a life threatening illness.  The moment isn't necessarily walking out of the hospital.  It comes weeks, even months later when you realize that it could all be gone right now.  It's then that you realize how fragile and precious life is and you are happy to be alive.

--------

I don't know what is sadder.  The fact that some feel the need to dump their misfortune on others just because they have a good day.  Or that fact that some here will never experience the perfect moment because they will not open their heart to the opportunity.

I say good for you garandman.  Life is way too short to pass up on a perfect moment.

LL

garandman,

I took your post as you were some holy roller preacher telling that life is perfect and we shall disregard the evils that are in it.
If life is going good for you then I AM happy for you.
I'm sorry if I took your post the wrong way. I just had it up over my head with people with great lives assuming that other people's lives are the same. I probably put you in the catagory of those people when I dissed your post.
Yes, I can too enjoy the good things life has to bring us and be glad I'm alive. But with the knowledge I have that there are people less fortunate or people who are so evil, I never yet could of been able to say "life is good".

I got a new bonus to my life today! One of the FOUR impacted wisdom teeth I never got taken out because of a lack of insurance now appears to have a cavity and hurts like hell. I am so damn poor that I will have to borrow a bottle of ambesol from the drug store.

Woo hoo! Things just keep getting better and better!

Ok, one good thing did happen to me today. When I went to a competitor's restaurant, they gave me extra ketchup without having to ask.

Remember the first time you got a computer to do what you wanted it to? (You must, you're "here" aren't you?)

Remember the satisfaction you got after purchasing your first "real" firearm? After shooting it? (Most on this board should.)

There are people--BUTTLOADS OF PEOPLE--who work in fields all day in third-world countries. Or live in slums in third-world countries. Or live in Washington DC ;)

You're a heavily armed, computer-savvy American (OK, again, MOST of you are). You might not be as prosperous as you think you should be, but you could do a helluvalot worse.

Who ever said that life has to be "perfect" (whatever that is) to appreciate and enjoy what you do have? How miserable of an existence must it be when one cannot even appreciate good health, loved ones, a star filled sky, a magnificent sunrise?