When I was about
seventeen years old, I began planning.
It might have started sooner but that’s my earliest recollection of
it. The restless energy of “what’s
next and how do I get there?” took hold of me and, for a while, my life became
a series of stepping-stones to the next thing. I didn’t enjoy my senior year of high school, so my focus
became college. In college, my goal
was to graduate early. I
accomplished it, even with transferring from one school to another, working,
and doing multiple internships. Looking
back, I can say that all it got me was a degree and a shove into the world of
working full time.
Before I knew it,
life grabbed me and I watched years pass like days; one job led to the next
with moves to new cities, and my kids grew up faster than I liked. I said goodbye to old friends, hello to
new ones and continued to plan for the next stage of my life. Even now, I still do it. I’ve written four books, published
three and I’m writing the fifth, yet I’m planning the next and the one after it. I think I need to cram as much into
life as I can get. Perhaps it’s my
age and I feel I’m running out of time.
Seeing friends and family members pass away can do this. Our own mortality looms.
However, it has also allowed me to
reflect on the importance of slowing down, too. At what point do we realize that life is the journey? We can plan for the stages of it:
graduations, careers, marriage, a family, growth, travel, retirement. But it’s the jolts, surprises and
unexpected knocks that sidetrack you, make you laugh, cause you to cry, make
you shake your fist at the world and open your eyes to things you’d never
considered before. It’s the day-to-day
living, not the planning; it’s the now, not the future, because there is no guarantee
you’ll see it or benefit from all you’ve planned for yourself.
Your life is now. I borrowed the title from John
Mellencamp’s song, even though the expression is one that’s used often about
living life in the moment. It
applies to the journey. Don’t
sprint; take a stroll. Breathe
deeply and smell the roses; appreciate the sound of rain, dance in it. Relish the taste, laugh, be
sentimental, love openly, show kindness, be fearless. Take the back roads, not the interstates. Learn, listen and be okay when things
don’t go as planned. Appreciate
the small things that come your way along that epic odyssey of life.
As the Thanksgiving holiday approaches,
I find myself on another emotional roller coaster. Change is coming, yet I’m going to enjoy the day itself and
the meaning behind it, no plans around it other than being with family. Tomorrow will be dealt with when it
gets here. And if I had done
things differently in my life, I would’ve slowed down in college, made deeper
friendships, hugged my children until they begged me not to, laughed a little
louder and longer, apologized more often and not once would I have sweated over
things that didn’t really matter.
Thank you for
reading this blog and I hope Thanksgiving finds you happy and healthy; cherish
the time with your families and friends, live that moment, the day, to the fullest. Have a peaceful and fulfilling holiday.
