Messages from the Universe...

In accordance with tigger's philosophies, I'm beginning to think the Universe is trying to send me a message.

Yesterday, our marketing director came by and asked if I wanted to go to a charity luncheon. Being the social butterfly that I am (ha!), I immediately started to try to back out of it politely and told her that if she was unable to fill the table, let me know and I'd go. Then I started thinking about it: 1.) I didn't bring my lunch and would, therefore, be forced to actually buy lunch; 2.) getting out of the office for a few hourse would definitely make the day go by faster; 3.) I could actually get paid for eating lunch today (that's never a bad deal). So, I let her know that I would definitely go. I think part of the panic was that I thought I was going by myself, which is ridiculous, O-Foggy-Brained-One.

The luncheon was for the Christus Foundation for Healthcare - which used to be St. Joseph's for those of you from H-town. And it was at the River Oaks Country Club. For those of you not from H-town, it is the Beverly Hills of our city. I'll wait for the "Oooo's" and "Ahhh's" to die down before I continue.......Ready? Okay.

Talk about a gathering of wealthy socialites! Very posh. Lunch was very good. Much better than some of the other luncheon's I've been to. There must have had 30 people working the valet. It was pretty amazing to watch.

Anyway, on to the message. The guest speaker was Mitch Albom of Tuesdays with Morrie fame. I have not read that book but I've heard it's good. He gave us background on the book, where it came from, what it was about, the fact that he really only wrote it to pay for Morrie's medical bills and had no idea it would be as popular as it ended up being, etc., etc., etc. Very good speaker, which should not be surprising as he is a best selling author.

He talked about two of the points in the book: age and money. His/Morrie's message on age was basically that you shouldn't envy those younger than you for the experiences they are having, you should be proud of the experience you have on them. Very true. Enjoy your youth while you have it and you should have nothing to regret.

And then money. Really, the message wasn't anything that you or I haven't heard before. And most of it I've already started to figure out on my own. The crux was that at the end of your life, "when that last grain of sand is dropping through your hour glass", what is going to be most important to you? For most people, it is more about the people you love and have shared your life with rather than how you have spent your life. If what you ask for with your last dying breath is going to involve those that you love, you should make every effort to affect their lives now, while you have the time. The way you continue to be in the lives of those you leave behind is by leaving them with the memories they will always cherish.

How many times have we all said something like, "You know, if Laura was here, she'd totally say this is a beach day." The reason we can say things like that is because they have been involved in your life enough that you really got to know them and they had such an effect on your life that you recognize their influence after they are gone. That is the gift they have given to you. And that is the gift you should give to every person that is important to you.

I walked away from the luncheon reflecting on a couple of things: the obvious one being that the Universe is trying to reinforce to me that chosing my family over my career is the right thing to do and I should stop feeling so guilty for it. The second is that our company president would certainly not be very pleased if he'd been at the luncheon. That is the complete opposite of everything they are trying to tell us at work right now. Very amusing. My company paid me to listen to a speaker who was preaching to us about working less and enjoying life more.