Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 13:22 — 6.8MB) | Embed
Welcome to Stuff I Learned Yesterday. My name is Darrell Darnell, I once got a 3 day school bus suspension for fighting, and I believe if you aren’t learning, you aren’t living. In today’s episode of Stuff I Learned Yesterday I share a lesson I learned by looking at snow.
Today’s Fun Fact of the Day is: The most snow to fall in a 24-hour period in the United States is 75.8 inches. In 1921, over six feet of snow fell between April 14 at 2:30 p.m. and April 15 at 2:30 p.m. in Silver Lake, Colorado.
Friday Forum
I want you to be a part of the Friday Forum! Friday Forum is your opportunity to Share what YOU’VE learned, so that other listeners and I can learn from YOU. It can be a message as short as 30 seconds or several minutes long. It really doesn’t matter just as long as it’s something that will benefit others. You can participate in Friday Forum by visiting our Feedback Page or calling our voice feedback line at 304-837-2278.
What I Learned Yesterday:
Are you up for another episode involving snow? I know many of you have had enough of the white stuff to last a lifetime, but I guess we can all be grateful we didn’t live in Silver Creek, Colorado back in 1921.
As I look out my window today I see a few inches of snow. I haven’t watched the news to see how much is out there, but I’d guess it’s about 2 inches. It’s nice to have a window in my studio. It’s something I never got during my corporate days. Okay, well technically I did have a window, but the only thing I could see was the tops of shelving out in our warehouse.
When I look out my window now, I see the flower beds that I worked so hard on last year. As I look at them now, they are not nearly as pretty as they once were. When I make my daily trek to the mailbox and back, I walk past them and see the brown, shriveled up remnants of last year’s botanical achievement. I don’t like what I see now.
I think I mentioned that I went to lunch with my neighbors a few weeks ago. One of the things I asked was when we would be able to get back out there in the yard and start making things pretty again. Mandy told me that as tempting as it was to get out there now, it was too early. I knew she was right. We always get a snow storm in March. As I look at the snow in my yard now, I’m sure it won’t be the last of it we see before spring arrives for good.
You may recall that last Monday we also had a snow storm blow through that left us about 4.5” of snow. As I sat on the warm confines of my studio sipping coffee and looking out the window, I began to wonder. I wondered what spring would look like this year. I tried to visualize what my plants looked like last year when they were at their prime. I wondered which of the plants would return, and which would not. I wondered what sorts of plants would catch my eye this year and find their home outside my window.
I wondered some more.
I wondered if I’d be able to match the great success I had last year and have so many thriving plants greeting me every day. I wondered if Barnard the bumblebee come back to pollinate my flowers every day.
My mind then shifted and I wondered if I was selling myself short. What if I was able to grow even more beautiful plants this year than I did last year? Last year was the most beautiful yard I’d ever been able to grow. Could I really top it?
Here’s what I learned.
Those flowers will never return. The colors and arrangements will never be duplicated. The beauty found in my flowerbeds last year was only here for a season, and it could not last. It wasn’t made to last.
Last Friday the world lost a legend. Those of us who are Fringe fans and Star Trek fans are all very likely Leonard Nimoy fans too. He was a man as kind as he was talented. Back in our days of doing The Fringe Podcast we were fortunate enough to be invited to participate in a conference call with Leonard Nimoy, and he was incredibly charming and gracious to everyone (Episode #449).
Mr. Nimoy was frequently on Twitter and loved interacting with fans. He also loved inspiring them. In case you haven’t already seen it, here’s his last Tweet, which he sent just 4 days before his death. He said, “A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved, except in memory. LLAP”
As I reflected on the final words of this man who possessed so much wisdom and life experience the words sunk in. They brought an entire new depth to what I had been thinking about my flower beds.
Here are the words of that Tweet again. “A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved, except in memory. LLAP”
Life if full of moments. One moment passes on to the next moment and often does so with such grace that we miss the hand off. One day we look around us and see that time has not just passed upon those around us, it has passed upon us as well.
In this journey of life there are many beautiful things and many beautiful moments. But that’s all they are. They are here for a moment and then they are gone. So does that mean that they are worthless? Oh no, quite the contrary. The truly beautiful things in life are the most precious things.
My garden from last year was the most beautiful one I’ve ever had a hand in creating. I may not be able to top it. I have two choices. Choice number one is to never forget. I can look at the pictures I took, listen to the stories I recorded about it, and talk about it with others who saw it. That’s a really great choice. I would very much enjoy that.
However, choice two is great too. I can take the experience I acquired from last year, roll up my sleeves, and put my hands back into the soil. I can create new moments, enjoy new beauty, and enjoy things I’ve never seen before.
Okay, you know what? There are actually three choices. The third choice is to do both of those things. Enjoy the memory of what once was while still digging in and building what could be.
A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved, except in memory. Your memory will last forever, Mr. Nimoy. Thank you for all you gave.
I’m Darrell Darnell and this has been stuff I learned yesterday.
Follow Golden Spiral Media on Twitter at GSMPodcasts and Facebook.com/GoldenSpiralMedia. To subscribe to Stuff I Learned yesterday, visit GoldenSpiralMedia.com/subscribe. If you’ve enjoyed this episode of Stuff I Learned Yesterday, I would be grateful if you’d leave a review in iTunes.
[sc:stuff]