A 75 year old retired farmer sat in my office today.
With tears in his eyes he told me how lonely he feels since his wife passed away last year.
"For years," he said, "I worked long hours in the field, spending time away from my wife, and away from my children. We never went on family vacations... and as a matter of fact we rarely even ate supper together. To be honest, I was usually too tired to enjoy it anyway."
"Before I knew it my children had grown up, moved away, married, and were having children of their own. Yet still I worked on.... long and hard."
"Then two years ago my wife got sick. Finally I realized it was time to slow down. I retired so that I could spent time with her."
"But our time was spent at the doctor's office, the cancer clinic, the hospital, the lab..... and eventually, spent sleeping next to her in a hospital bed."
"Within a few weeks she passed away. The love of my life gone. GONE!"
"Now my days are spent sitting on the front patio, coffee cup in hand, all alone....surrounded by silence - wishing more than anything that she was next to me."
"Yes, my bank account may be large, and my debts may be few, but no amount of money can heal the hollowness in my heart or the longing in my soul to turn back the hands of time."
"Take a lesson from an old man who has learned the hard way, make your family a priority above everything else. Work less .....and love more."
Needless to say, when this gentleman left my office today, and I swallowed the lump in my throat for at least 5 minutes, I realized how right he was.
On a yellow sticky in big bold letters I wrote the words "WORK LESS & LOVE MORE" and stuck it to my computer. Then I packed up my files, shut down my computer, and went home....to my family!
