Have you ever watched kids
On a merry-go-round?
Or listened to the rain
Slapping on the ground?
Ever followed a butterfly’s erratic flight?
Or gazed at the sun into the fading night?
You better slow down.
Don’t dance so fast.
Time is short.
The music won’t last.
Do you run through each day
On the fly?
When you ask “How are you?”
Do you hear the reply?
When the day is done
Do you lie in your bed
With the next hundred chores
Running through your head?
You’d better slow down
Don’t dance so fast.
Time is short.
The music won’t last.
Ever told your child,
We’ll do it tomorrow?
And in your haste,
Not see his sorrow?
Ever lost touch,
Let a good friendship die
Cause you never had time
To call and say “Hi”?
You’d better slow down.
Don’t dance so fast.
Time is short.
The music won’t last.
When you run so fast to get somewhere
You miss half the fun of getting there.
When you worry and hurry through your day,
It is like an unopened gift….
Thrown away.
Life is not a race.
Do take it slower
Hear the music
Before the song is over.
-written by David L. Weatherford (not a young girl with cancer, as I first stated)
It seems we always hurry through this time of year. We need to slow down and enjoy every moment.
God bless.
Thanks Heather!
Reading this made me relize what I was doing without even knowing it!
God Bless
Heather,
I love this song! I wish we adults could be as “smart” as the young people. . . we can learn a lot from them!
Hope you and your family are doing well. . .
Blessings from Tennessee, ~Laurie
And the song is not over until He says so…very comforting for sure…
Heather,
This was so beautiful.
Kids really really get it.
I dont know if you know but Marisa over at Life went to be with God this morning. Her husband has updated the blog with the arrangements. Thought I’d mention it, I started reading her blog because you asked for prayers for her here.
Heather would you be willing to pass this on?
http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/gunnergillespie
Casey Caldwell
Thanks for this great post! I continue to pray for you often!
Oh my… this hit me right in the gut. I’m truly convicted about how I spend my time.
Dear Heather…
On a night when my heart is full of thoughts of Marisa Vanderveen and Don Valencia, prayers for their families, both “introduced” by a link from your site, I am slowing. Hugging my babies. Singing songs. SMILING. LAUGHING. LINGERING.
We all only write short stories.
I need to write mine better, stronger, deeper.
Thank you, Heather… a thousand thank-yous. The world, and the people, you have introduced me to, has forever changed my life.
All’s grace,
Ann
I’ve read that one before, I love it! Thanks for reminding me.
I’ve read this one before too. love it!
beautiful… really challenges a perspective.
YES YES YES.
And I just went back and read “The Cancer” and it resonated deep within me, reminding me of my own Everest that I had to climb when I faced divorce, the loss of my first child (we were 2 months from our referral for a little girl) and then my mom’s death 7 months later. Yes, these things broke me down, almost to the point of death- but it took being broken down to be lifted up. In my own pain and suffering, I recognized Christ more fully than I ever had before. And even though His presence offered me no comfort (in that it never took away the suffering)- it gave me something far better- the ability to withstand, to survive, to embrace the pain, and to be re-molded in love. There was a solidarity between us that I’d never felt before. I have come away with scars, but with the greatest gift God ever could have given me- the gift of me, of who I truly am. I have walked forward and out of this darkness into a great light. And in that light I see that all that God ever wants for any of us is pure happiness. To live fully, ever present, right now.
It’s an incredible thing. And I wouldn’t trade all that I’ve been through.
You are one amazing person…
Heather:
Thank you for posting this poem. What a beautiful expression of what we ALL need to be doing.
Heather,
I have lurked quietly on your website for the past week now and all I can say is you are truely an inspiration to me.
I have been studying I Peter 3:1-6 and your character exemplies a gentle and tranquil spirit in spite of the daily trials you endure.
You, my sister, are truely beautiful inside and out. You always draw attention to Christ and away from yourself throughout your journey.
May God continue to bless you. My family and I are praying for you every day my dear friend.
In Christ’s love,
Tiffiny Fernandez
West Covina, California
I passed that on to several friends. You are amazing.
He was told he had 6 months…2 yeasrs later…..Leroy’s post today:
Two years ago today, my life changed forever.
The day started out like any other. I had a job interview that afternoon for a position I really wanted. It was a phone interview, and the only thing that worried me was that I had started to slur my words. I couldn’t figure out why. None of my friends said anything. I wrote it off to fatigue. I wasn’t sleeping well. I was waking up with headaches, which was something new for me.
The interview went fine. But at dinner, it was clear that things weren’t fine. One side of my face was drooping. We went to the emergency room and the doctor’s first thought was Bell’s Palsy, a temporary paralysis of the face. I remember thinking how awful it would be if that’s what I had.
Then everything changed. I had a brain scan, and as I was wheeled back into the ER I caught the eye of my doctor. And I knew.
“We found a mass.” I had a brain tumor and tumors in my lungs. I was told three to six months. I remember the room spinning, or was it my head?
Well, two years later, I’m still here. Thanks to the skills of my doctors, the strength of my friends and loved ones, and the generosity of all of you who have included me in your thoughts and prayers. And also a little stubbornness on my part.
I won’t say I shouldn’t be here, I don’t think that’s right. I wasn’t expected to still be here, that’s certainly true.
I’m a different person in many ways. Everything I’ve gone through, all the things I’ve learned, have changed me in ways large and small.
Who knows how this will play out?
Today I’m not going to think about that. Today there’s really only one thing to say.
I’m still here.
– Leroy Sievers
Absolutely beautiful, Heather. I am going to put a print-out of this in my bible and on my refrigerator too to remind me.
Heather, my friend…this poem pretty much says it all! Brings things into a clear perspective of how to live life to the fullest! Thanks for sharing!
Love Michelle
How beautiful!
Wow,
Why is it that we only see ‘life” when we go through “trials,
praying for you, Heather,
Heather, It takes a situation such as yours to come to light and make you realize that your tomorrows are always a differant path than we may have imagined and your has opened doorways to our minds to take that moment and to run with it life is what you choose each day and may God always be in it and God Bless You
This is a beautiful poem, but it wasn’t written by a young girl with cancer. It was written by David Weatherford
http://www.breakthechain.org/exclusives/slowdance.html
Could you please correct your author reference?