Soap Box

This past week we lost a dear friend who fought a long and valiant battle against cancer.

Hazel and myself went to see her one afternoon and the next morning she went home to be with the Lord. If we had delayed the trip by as much as one day we would not have gotten to see her and, though unspoken, say goodbye.

I learned a valuable lesson about putting off until tomorrow something you know you should do today. Hazel had a strong feeling about not putting the visit off and I am so thankful that I listened to her and got to spend some time with our friend before the Lord took her home.

It also got me to thinking about how fragile life is, how fast our days go by and about leaving things undone, continually putting them off, with the best of intentions, but still never getting it done as the years rush by.

How many items do you have on your bucket list? That place you've wanted to visit for so long, that fishing trip you never quite got around to, the harsh word you said to a friend back when, that, though you decided years ago to do it, you never took the time to apologize. 

None of us know how much time we have left, we tend to figure the odds, the mortality tables and adhere to what is traditionally considered to be the normal lifespan of a healthy person planning on years that may never come our way.

Our lifespan, the years allotted to us, is as individual as we are, and the law of averages doesn't apply in all cases as accident, sickness, violence and a thousand unforeseen and unknowable factors come in to play and many times cut short the years we think we have left to us. 

I will be 79 years old on the 28th of this month and have drawn quite a few conclusions about living life and coming to the end of it.

The most important thing is the condition of our eternal soul, the only part of us that will live on after we're gone.

I put my soul into the hands of God through Jesus Christ, His Son - which is all I can, or need to do - and I will get on with my remaining earthly days, be they many or few, and enjoy them to the fullest to the best of my ability.

I am not just happily, but ecstatically married, have a wonderful relationship with my son and my grandchildren, dote on my friends, absolutely love my work, am in reasonably good health and still get excited about creating and performing music.

I live in Tennessee, the state I always wanted to live in. I love our home and when I move from there I want to go to Heaven.

My bucket list consists of a wide range of things that I would probably have to live to be 150 years old to accomplish, so I will experience the ones I can get to and relish the possibility of doing the rest.

I have long wanted to catch an eight-pound large mouth bass and kill a ten-point white tail buck.

I want to do a concert at the Old City wall of Jerusalem.

I want to shake Hank Aaron's hand.

I want to finish and publish my biography, which always seems to be a work-in-progress.

I want to snowmobile in Yellowstone Park.

I want to hit a hole in one.

I would like to develop into a crack handgun shot.

I could go on and on and I'm sure you could too, but the point is, what is life without dreams and having something to look forward to?

Every day is a precious day of life and we should never look at them as just another mundane 24-hour period of breathing and existing, but another exciting chance to make something better out of our lives. Another day to do a better job, be a nicer person, dream another dream.

Looking back over my almost 79 years, if you'll suffer a little unrequested advice, I would tell you to follow your dreams, live in harmony as much as is possible and go to work on that bucket list as finances and time allow.

Vicky McAlpin Tubb
September 3, 1958 - October 6, 2015

Thank you, Vicky, for living your life in such a way as to inspire us all and even in death leaving us with memories of your beautiful smile and reminding us that each day is precious and special to be treasured and lived to the fullest.

Rest in peace, we all loved you very much.

Dean Tubb, you are like a son to Hazel and me, and we will be here for you as you go though this most difficult time in your life. Our prayers and our love, and above all, God's love surrounds you.

God Bless you and God Bless America.

� Charlie Daniels

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