Don't Grow Up or Old Too Quick

"It's paradoxical that the idea of living a long life appeals to everyone but the idea of getting old appeals to no one." I would add that children should not be in a hurry to grow up too fast because you can never go back to childhood again.

Have you noticed that kids seem to be in a hurry to grow up and grow old? Looking back over my childhood, I suppose I rushed things also. The hurry to get a job, get my driver's license, go on a date and graduate high school. Children nowadays want a cell phone, a computer and even their own car. Kids want to make adult decisions and are in a hurry to get on with the business of living because they want to make a mark in the world.

I have witnessed my generation change throughout the years - grower older, grayer or even balder and seemingly wiser in some ways and more foolish in others. I've witnessed the world age, too, and just this morning watching Prince William take Kate as his bride - this little boy who once walked behind his mother's casket is now a grown man. Where do the years go to?

My advice to the younger generations is quite simply, "slow down and smell the roses." It all goes by so quickly and the garden is never as lovely as it is in the springtime of your youth when all is new and freshly blooming. If you are going to work hard, then play hard and pray hard because life is never fair but it is worth living.

One day, our younger generation will step up to the plate and be so busy making a living that I hope they do not forget that the very things that matter most are often the things that many miss. Those moments that must be savored like the loving embrace at the end of a long day, the dog who greets you with wagging tail even though you've only returned from the mailbox, those "first steps" by children or grandchildren and the hand that holds you up when life is beating you down.

Don't miss those moments or you have truly missed out on something of importance.

We are never more than one breath or one heartbeat away from the end of our lives or as Rooney also said, "I've learned that life is like a roll of toilet tissue that when it reaches the end of the roll it goes very quickly."

Enjoy your life because before you know it, you're at the end of the roll.