How much is your time worth?

Joyce and I lived in a log home on 8 acres of property which she loved dearly. We planted about 200 pine trees that have grown quite large but we still had a lot of grass to cut. I would cut the back grass behind the house with an old Allis Chalmers tractor and a 5 ft. brush hog. As the sun set in the back yard Joyce's country kitchen would be flooded with the warm rays of the evening sun. I could see her in the kitchen as I made my pass up towards the house to turn around and head back. Some times she would open the kitchen screen door to wave me up to eat supper or just to give me the high sign like in the Little Rascals. It's hard to make that pass up towards the house now knowing that she is not there and Ill never see her give me the high sign again.

We have been doing art shows for the past 18 years. I would do the painting and printing. Joyce would cut matts, frame and be the artist behind the artist. We would eat breakfast together, go running and either work in our studio, work around the yard or just goof off. We spent a lot of time together. She had made the comment on more than one occasion, as we worked in our studio, how she could not believe that we could make a living doing this. I know it made her happy and gave her sense of pride and that made me happy.

The middle of October was the last time we went running. Joyce was not having any symptoms and did not know she had cancer. As we walked up the far side of our property towards the house she told me, "If something should happen to either one of us we have no regrets." Two weeks later we found out she had colon cancer.

In February Joyce was not feeling well. She wanted me to do a 5 day show that I did not want to do. She told me that we needed to think about our future and we just can't stop doing shows. It was a terrible show. I did not want to be there. I wanted to be with her.

Back to the question "how much is your time worth?". I can tell you for me that I would give everything I own to have just one hour of those five days back. You have to ask yourself, how much am I selling the hours of my life for and how much would I pay to get them back, if God forbid, you lost your mate? Ultimate happiness is right here right now not sometime in the future that you can buy with the money that you sold the hours of your life for. "Time is money" is bullshit. Once you sell your time you can't buy it back for any amount of money. Be real careful how much you sell and what your price is.

Love your Wife.