Ingredients of a Perfect Day

Mmm - should that be ingredients "of" a perfect day or ingredients "for" a perfect day?

Continuing the "day" thread, posted above my computer is a thought-provoking piece done in beautiful calligraphy. I've used it as a thought for the day which I used to send to my kids every morning, and given it to one granddaughter who is collecting special thoughts to post on the walls in her bedroom. I wish I could do it here in a font similar to the original, but you can use your imagination:

Take time to think - It is the source of power.
Take time to play - It is the secret of perpetual youth.
Take time to pray - It is the greatest power on earth.
Take time to read - It is the foundation of wisdom.
Take time to love and be loved - It is a God-given privilege.
Take time to be friendly - It is the road to happiness.
Take time to laugh - It is the music of the soul.
Take time to give - It is too short a day to be selfish.

There you have the ingredients for a perfect day. I would put them in a different order, beginning with prayer, then reading, as in scripture study, then the thinking (pondering) would probably come next, but in reality, it doesn't matter in what order you do them, as long as you do each of them each day.

I have a problem with being too accomplishment-oriented. I make my list of things-to-do-today and work diligently to get everything checked off. What I don't do is put on it some of those more important things, like reading just for fun, calling a friend to see how she's surviving her teenagers, or even just turning off the book on CD as I drive in the car to think and ponder. My husband is a great thinker. He solves lots of problems in marvelously inventive ways, just by sitting still or laying down and closing his eyes and relaxing - and thinking.

Today I think I'll take each of these ingredients and see if I can work some magic to make it a perfect day - after my visiting teachers visit, and I take a lady to the vet for her dog's shots, and deliver a baby quilt, and do a return to Ross, and run to the grocery store, and make a zillion phone calls, and see if I can entice a lady on our visiting teaching list to get out of the house and go to lunch with me and quit dwelling on her children's problems for an hour, and do the laundry, and catch up my journal and finish getting the financial figures ready to do our taxes and...........mmm...........do you see a pattern emerging here?

Anna, we are indeed sisters. Interesting that life gets in the way of all of our good intentions. But if we keep trying, maybe someday, we'll have that perfect day.