My wife and I were on a cruise vacation recently and joined another couple for dinner each evening. That’s how cruise dining works. You never know who you might be seated with.
We sat with a lovely couple almost 20 years our senior.
Karl and Segrid exhibited a wonderful, positive spirit and shared their life story with us. How they met (in Amsterdam at 16 years of age), their family, grandchildren and great grandchildren. Their eyes sparkled and they smiled widely when they spoke about each other and their family.
You could see that there was something special about these two.
During one of our dinner conversations I asked, “what advice can you give to a younger couple like us?” Segrid piped in, “treat every day as a ‘bonus day’,” she said.
“What’s a bonus day?” I asked.
“It’s simple,” she said. “If you realize that every day you are alive is actually a day that you might not have enjoyed, you can’t help but be thankful. That makes each and every day a true bonus day.”
How easy it is for us to take that for granted. Every day IS a bonus day, regardless of your age or place in life. Every morning when we wake up, we should treat that day as if it were a day that we might not have enjoyed.
What’s a bonus day worth?
What price can you put on another chance to hug your loved ones? To talk to your friends? To enjoy the sunshine on your face? To see the waves lapping the shore?
Bonus days are priceless.
And so is every day.