A couple of years ago I wrote a short story that I called, 1,000 Marbles and I published it on my Web site. The story was a modern day parable about discovering and appreciating life's finite nature. It is a fictional conversation between two amateur radio operators.

At age 55, a man realizes his life expectancy is about 75 years and so he calculates that he has about 1,000 Saturdays left to enjoy. He buys a thousand marbles and marks the passing of each Saturday by removing one marble from a jar. By watching the marbles, and his time, slowly run out he finds it much easier to spend that time wisely.

1,000 Marbles A Little Something About Precious Time 256 pages Paperback ISBN: 0740715534 Amazon.com

Something rather magical happened to that story during the Summer of 2000. A few people must have thought it was pretty good because they copied my story and it began to make its way around the globe on the wings of e-mail. Hundreds of inspirational mailing lists picked it up and I awoke one morning to nearly 20,000 e-mails about the story! Everyone wanted permission to reprint it in their club newsletter, local newspaper, or read it on a local radio station. To this very day it can still be found on thousands of Web sites although in many cases they say, "Author Unknown" or "someone sent this to me but I don't know who wrote it".

A few days later I received a phone call from Andrews McMeel Publishing. They wanted to turn the story into a book. I asked them how on earth this short story could be made into an entire book and their reply really got my interest. The idea was to include the story along with 1,000 thought provoking ideas for worthwhile things to do on your day off.

Coming up with the first 50 ideas was easy. After that it took a lot more effort than I would have thought. Six months later, with the help of a lot of friends, I had compiled 1,000 unique things that (hopefully) will enrich your life. I didn't include a thing that is out of anyone's reach. It would have been easy to suggest flying to Paris on the Concorde for lunch, but that isn't a very practical suggestion for most of us who work for a living.

1,000 Marbles hit the store shelves in June 2001. It's been doing quite well (thank you very much) and I've enjoyed being interviewed about it on radio stations all around the country. Last week I received news that the book is going to be published in German by a Swiss publishing company later this year. I guess that makes me an internationally published author?

I hope you will consider picking up a copy of my book. It makes a great gift for a friend or relative who is running through life at a breakneck pace. You can buy it at any Borders, Barnes & Noble, or Books-A-Million bookstore. It may also be available at your own local bookstore, be sure to ask for it. In Canada you can find it at Chapters Bookstores. If you'd prefer, you can also buy it online from all the above as well as Amazon.com and many, many others.

Once you've had a chance to read it, please let me know what you think of it. I'd also like to hear about what you like to do on your day off. I hope that in some small way this simple story will enrich your life as it seems to have done for so many others.

Wishing you a wonderful life filled with marbles,

Jeffrey Davis, N9AVG