{"id":773,"date":"2009-04-22T17:24:55","date_gmt":"2009-04-22T22:24:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/2009\/04\/22\/off-topic-mayonnaise-jar-two-beers\/"},"modified":"2019-02-26T21:41:19","modified_gmt":"2019-02-27T02:41:19","slug":"off-topic-mayonnaise-jar-two-beers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/2009\/04\/22\/off-topic-mayonnaise-jar-two-beers\/","title":{"rendered":"Off-Topic: A Mayonnaise Jar & Two Beers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Every once-in-a-while I receive a forwarded email that resets<\/em> my focus on life.<\/p>\n

Earlier today, my sister, Monica, sent me an email titled, “A Mayonnaise Jar & Two Beers”. Given the nature of this website, I found the fundamental message of this story to be very appropriate for those dealing with the stress of heart valve surgery.<\/p>\n

So, without further ado, I offer you “A Mayonnaise Jar & Two Beers”:<\/p>\n

When things in your life seem almost too much to handle, when 24 hours in a day are not enough, remember the mayonnaise jar and the two beers.<\/p>\n

A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him.<\/p>\n

When the class began, he wordlessly picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls.<\/p>\n

  <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/div>\n

  <\/p>\n

He then asked the students if the jar was full.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

They agreed that it was.The professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar.\u00a0 He shook the jar lightly.\u00a0 The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls.<\/p>\n

He then asked the students again if the jar was full.<\/p>\n

They agreed it was.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar.\u00a0 Of course, the sand filled up everything else.<\/p>\n

He asked once more if the jar was full.<\/p>\n

The students responded with a unanimous \u201cyes.\u201d<\/p>\n

The professor then produced two beers from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar effectively filling the empty space between the sand.<\/p>\n

The students laughed…<\/p>\n

\u201cNow,\u201d said the professor as the laughter subsided, \u201cI want you to recognize that this jar represents your life.\u00a0 The golf balls are the important things—your family, your children, your health, your friends and your favorite passions—and if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your house and your car.\u00a0 The sand is everything else—the small stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you put the sand into the jar first,\u201d he continued, \u201cthere is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls.\u00a0 The same goes for life.\u00a0 If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff you will never have room for the things that are important to you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201dPay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSpend time with your children.\u201d<\/p>\n

“Spend time with your parents.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cVisit with grandparents.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTake time to get medical checkups.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTake your spouse out to dinner.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPlay another 18.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere will always be time to clean the house and fix the disposal.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201dTake care of the golf balls first—the things that really matter.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSet your priorities.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201dThe rest is just sand\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the beer represented.<\/p>\n

The professor smiled and said, \u201cI’m glad you asked.\u201d<\/p>\n

“The Beer just shows you that no matter how full your life may seem, there’s always room for a couple of beers with a friend.\u201d \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

Regardless of where you are in the heart surgery process, I hope this story helps you.<\/p>\n

Keep on tickin!
\nAdam<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22555,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-773","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-adams-updates"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/773","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=773"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/773\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}