M: M&M's = Gratitude

On my dresser is a jar of M&M's. It's been there for several years. Every Saturday I reach into the jar, take out one M&M and eat it. You're probably wondering why.

A couple of years ago I read a post about a man who figured his life expectancy was about 75 years. He calculated how many weeks that would be, then went out and bought a large glass jar. He filled it with marbles, one for each week he thought he had left to live. Once a week he removed one marble from the jar to remind himself how brief life is and how important it is to be thankful for every minute.


What a great idea. I decided to figure out how much time I have left I did this by consulting the Death Clock. I know this sounds macabre--it's a website on which you enter your birthdate and then learn approximately when you will pass away. Anyway, I figured how many weeks that would be and filled my jar, not with marbles but with M&M's. Chocolate gives me migraine so I eat very little of it, but one mouthful a week--that's not a headache, that's a treat. So on Saturdays I eat my candy and think about the good things that have happened over the last seven days--maybe the spring azaleas in gardens all over town, maybe an evening with my granddaughter, a phone call from a friend I haven't seen, a funny incident at work, a nice comment on my blog. And I'm grateful to have made it through another week and, hopefully, to have made the most of it.