Soap Box

I recently spent time with an old and dear friend of mine. Our relationship goes back a long way and we haven’t had the chance to visit for any concentrated amount of time for many years.

As we sat and recalled the many personal and professional experiences we have shared over the decades, it was amazing how many of our mutual friends have passed away, been incapacitated or for one reason or another have disappeared from the circle of acquaintances 
we run into once in a while.

As the day went on it dawned on me how very comfortable I was with my friend and how much I was enjoying reliving old memories and making new ones, and it became apparent to me just how precious true friends are and that we should make a conscious effort to stay in touch with them.

At present I have a friend who is in the last stages of cancer and others whose marriages have broken up, are unhealthy to one degree or another or have serious family problems, which prompts me to believe that our days are so precious, that to waste even one of them being overly concerned about events that don’t really matter, grudges, disagreements, things that you have no control over, is a travesty.

And how much would another few days be worth to someone who is terminally ill. What would a person who has lost a loved one give, just to have that beloved person back for just a few hours, yet, we who enjoy health, family and interesting lives, waste irreplaceable time being miffed, petulant or angry over issues and happenings, that, in the general scheme of things are totally inconsequential to our lives.

I am aware of how very blessed I am to be in good health, at the age of 81 still traveling around the country working at a trade that I love with people I love.

The 20th of September Hazel and me will be married for 53 years, my son’s home is just down the road and I’ve got several employees who have been with me for over 40 years.

I love my God, I love my church, I love my country and I love my life.

When we are at home we seldom go out to dinner or much of anywhere else for that matter, and if I don’t even go out the gate for a week I am perfectly content.

In the 39 years we’ve lived at Twin Pines Ranch we have been blessed to surround ourselves with the things that we enjoy spending time doing and grabbing a rod and reel to go down and try to fool some of the large mouth bass in the big pond, saddling a gentle horse for a ride across the fields and hills or jumping on a four-wheeler with a couple of hundred rounds of .22 cartridges and heading for the shooting range is always a good weather option.

The point I’m trying to make is that, although the life I live on the road would seem chaotic and unsettled to some people, and the lifestyle we live at home would be extremely boring, to some people, a dichotomy of hustle and halt, to each his own, and the older I get, the more it seems “my own” in my private life is family, friends and a simple kind of fun, most of which can be found within a mile radius of my house.

I have reached the point that, although I’m just as competitive minded and driven to create and perform the music, there comes a time when we should take an assessment of the things we devote the precious days of our lives to and decide what is really important to us.

I have, through the process of culling and separating the essential from the non-essential reached a balance between my work and my personal life and although I still travel around one hundred thousand miles most years and play in excess of one hundred shows a year, have managed to find a comfortable balance between my personal and business life.

Of course, this is a personal choice and what works for me would probably not work for most other people.

But the point is that life goes by so fast, it never hesitates, never pauses and never rewinds.

What’s here today is gone tomorrow, and, as trite as the old phrase is, we really should stop to smell the roses along the way.

Have you got an old friend you love that you’ve kinda lost touch with?

Give them a call, make arrangements to get together and enjoy each other’s company.

It’s a good feeling.

What do you think?

Pray for our troops, our police and the peace of Jerusalem.

God Bless America

— Charlie Daniels

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