Recently, we were fortunate to attend the 65th wedding anniversary of our cousins who read the following and suggested that it would make a great Pearl. We agree! Imagine that you had won the following prize in a contest. Each morning your bank would deposit $86,400 in your private account for your use. However, this prize has rules: Everything that you didn’t spend during each day would be taken away from you. You may not simply transfer money into some other account. You may only spend it. Each morning upon awakening, the bank opens your account with another $86,400 for that day.

The bank can end the game without warning; at anytime it can say, “Game Over.” It can close the account and you will not receive a new one. What would you personally do? You would buy anything and everything you wanted, right? Not only for yourself, but for all the people that you love and care for. Even for people you don’t know, because you couldn’t possibly spend it all on yourself, right? You would try to spend every penny and use it all, because you knew it would be replenished in the morning, right? This game is real. Each of us is already a winner of this prize. We just can’t seem to see it. The prize is time. Each morning we awaken to receive 86,400 seconds as a gift of life. And when we go to sleep at night, any remaining time is not credited to us. What we haven’t used up that day is forever lost. Yesterday is forever gone. Each morning the account is refilled, but the bank can dissolve your account at any time without warning. So, what will YOU do with your 86,400 seconds? Those seconds are worth so much more than the same amount in dollars. Think about it and remember to enjoy every second of your life, because time races by so much quicker than you think. So take care of yourself, be happy, love deeply and enjoy life! Here’s wishing you a wonderful and beautiful day. Start “spending!” Source: this was found in the billfold of Coach Paul Bear Bryant of the University of Alabama after he died in 1982 We appreciate thoughts and ideas for future Pearls from our readership, so please submit them to our email marrylabs@comcast.net.