Marge and Sheila crossed paths as Marge was getting out of the pool and there was a woman getting in--pushed in her wheelchair by one of the lifeguards.
It is not unusual to see a senior citizen with mobility challenges at our gym. The pool is frequently used by them for therapeutic purposes.
As they passed each other, Marge looked kindly on the woman. That woman had on a black, full length suit, a flipper on her foot, and a smile on her face. She cheerfully directed the guard over to the first swim lane, which was some distance away from the large open swim area, and set down some swimming equipment. Marge heard her say, "I'll go ahead and use this one."
That was when she realized that the woman would actually be swimming.
For some odd reason, when she first saw this woman--this woman with only one complete leg and just a stump at the other hip--She assumed that the woman would be undergoing therapy. She assumed that the woman would be like so many other senior women she see at the pool taking a class or just wading up and down through the water.
But when the woman picked an actual swimming lane, she realized that the woman was different.
Marge could not help but watch as the lifeguard wheeled her into the water just far enough for her get out and hop along the rail into the deeper water. "Hop, hop, hop," the woman said sweetly to a young toddler who also could not stop watching her.
Marge does not know whether the woman was conscious of her eyes following the woman. She tried to be discreet--looking only when the woman’s back was turned and conspicuously drying off and getting on my sweat suit at the edge of the pool so she would have a reason to stay.
Marge hoped that if the woman did catch her, the woman would somehow know that Marge was not ogling out of morbid curiosity or even sympathy, but out of deep admiration and respect.
The woman reached the open area and glided effortlessly across it to reach her chosen lane, and there Marge stopped watching and turned to go.
Marge had seen what she had been waiting for.
Marge had seen the woman with only one leg beat the odds and the excuses and the rationalizations and justifications...and become a mermaid.
THE LESSON
There is hardly any force in the Universe more powerful than an excuse. An excuse will hold back the strongest man or woman from conceiving what is possible and achieving what they set out to do. An excuse will convince the greatest among us that we are small and should stay silent. I daresay that an excuse is, at the core, the only thing that lies between us and our goals.
You really can have what you want. But to do so you must eliminate from your mind all the excuses that keep you from it. "I don't have any money." "I'm too old." "I'm too young." "I don't have enough education." "I'm not the right sex." "I'm not the right color." "I have a family." "I'm single." "My kids are too young." I could go on and on.
The fact is that whatever your excuse, there is someone who is successfully doing what you want to do despite that same excuse.
For everyone that thinks they cannot swim, there is a mermaid to prove them wrong.
In QS. Al-Ashr (1-3), Allah said: By (the token of) Time (through the Ages), Verify Man is in loss, except such as have Faith, and do righteous deeds, and (join together) in the mutual teaching of Truth, and of Patience and Constancy.
In fact everyday we’re getting closer with the death, so… use our time wisely..
Too old? Colonel Sanders was 60 before his idea for Kentucky Friend Chicken took off. Too young? Farrah Gray became a millionaire at just 15. No money? Dani Johnson was homeless at 19 with just $2.03 to her name and a millionaire at 21 (oh, and she didn't graduate from high school, either). Got cancer? What better example is there than Lance Armstrong?
TAKE ACTION… NOW…..!!!!
Keyword: time
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