Here is my new motto. I am not going to be sorry.
I don’t mean I won’t be remorseful, and appropriately apologetic if I wrong someone, I mean I am not going to hold back. I am going to try and live this life as hard as I can. Then, hopefully, no matter what happens I won’t have anything left to regret.
My Dad is now doing very well. But now Phil’s Dad isn’t doing very well. And summer is almost over, and the girls are 6 and 8 (ok, in a few days anyway), and time just flies, I guess I want to say. I am acutely aware of time, and mortality these days. Douglas Adams (the author of The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy) once said:
“I love deadlines. I love the whoosing sound they make as they go whizzing by.”
And while it is hard to look at life and loving as deadlines, I think the little things that make life great, and show people you love them, should be treated as deadlines. I tend to get so wrapped up in what I consider deadlines related to work, or tidying the house, that I knock the life deadlines off the bottom my list. And sometimes I feel they whiz by and we move on, forgetting some deadline altogether, but there it was. And wasn’t it important?
Yesterday I had lunch with my Dad. We had milkshakes with our lunches. Why not? And when I picked up the girls, they were STARVING, and were really nice when they asked if we could stop to get a snack, at Dairy Queen. So what if we ruined dinner? I hope when they are grown they will remember Dairy Queen as a hot summer thing. It was too hot for a bike ride when we got home, but we went anyway. When Grace was too tired to walk, I carried her without complaining. I let Grace make dinner (buttered noodles and tomato cucumber salad). And when we were done, she wanted to get out the Easy Bake and make cookies. So we did. They don’t sound like big things, but they are things I wouldn’t usually do on a weeknight when I was up at 4 with the pouncing T.K. (Terrible Kitten). It was a good day for life deadlines.
I have quite a few things on my list of deadlines, and I am hoping to start crossing them off the list. Maybe I can slow the whoosing sound so it sounds like the paper whisper of aspen leaves waving the deadlines on their way, and not like a jet screaming by at Mach 10.
Archives
- April 2013
- March 2013
- February 2013
- January 2013
- December 2012
- November 2012
- August 2012
- April 2012
- March 2012
- February 2012
- January 2012
- November 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- August 2011
- July 2011
- June 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
- March 2011
- February 2011
- January 2011
- December 2010
- November 2010
- October 2010
- September 2010
- August 2010
- June 2010
- May 2010
- April 2010
- March 2010
- February 2010
- January 2010
- December 2009
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009
- July 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- April 2009
- March 2009
- February 2009
- January 2009
- December 2008
- November 2008
- October 2008
- September 2008
- August 2008
- July 2008
- June 2008
- May 2008
- April 2008
- March 2008
- February 2008
- January 2008
- December 2007
- November 2007
- October 2007
- September 2007
- August 2007
- July 2007
- June 2007
- May 2007
- April 2007
- March 2007
- February 2007
- January 2007
- December 2006
- November 2006
- October 2006
- September 2006
- August 2006
- July 2006
- June 2006
- May 2006
- April 2006
- March 2006
I’m going ot have to revisit this one from time to time…for a little perspective. Thanks Jenine!
Thanks for reminding me of this important stuff Jenine. You really should be a writer, you are hitting home with my heart. Beth
Glad you are realizing these things this early in your life. I don’t think I did until I retired!
It always remains true that if we had been greater, circumstance would have been less strong against us.