Have you ever sat and thought about what a gift each and every day is? I actually had this entire blog almost finished, had some bitchen words of wisdom and thoughts, and my computer touchpad somehow selected the entire thing and deleted in one fail swoop! Like are you kidding me right now? So what did I do? I got pissed and turned it off! Sat angry and thought about the whole thing and what this post was about and then said you know what? This is a learning opportunity and the whole point of this post! So here goes round two! I just pray this blog doesn't find the same fate as the first one! Maybe there is a reason the first one deleted, guess I will never know! However it showed me to win and be the person I want to be, and to point out how precious the gift of now is, I am now rewriting it!
Yesterday I let a lady out into traffic and she didn't even acknowledge my existence, you know the whole common courtesy thing, wave or smile, or something! Nope nothing! Just pulled out like it was expected of someone to let her out! I instantly got annoyed and wished I had made her wait! But what good does that do? Serves no purpose, and me getting annoyed well it didn't bother her one bit, but got me all angry for no reason other than the point I was trying to make by being kind and making someone's day better by just being kind. Whatever happened to kindness anyway? These days everyone has an agenda! People are so self absorbed in their own world! We don't take time to just be in the moment, the here and now! We speed through life on to the next task on our to do list, not embracing the here and now.
Those of us who have had the pain of losing someone know just how important it is to be present. To miss the sound of someone's voice, to wish you had just one more hour with them. To miss the feel of a hug, or the smell of a familiar home, whatever the case may be, there are no more moments only memories. Yet we are so wrapped up in our own lives that we forget to slow down and just enjoy the time we have. I was walking through the hospital the other day and noticed how many people had their face buried in their phone! One guy was so wrapped up he almost ran me over, I had to move to avoid him plowing me down, good thing there wasn't a giant hole or puddle that he could have fallen into! We have all just become so accustomed to zoning out, that we are oblivious to what is going on all around us!
How often do you rush through the store, irritated when someone is blocking the entire aisle, staring aimlessly at the canned vegetables? Or driving to your destination you get behind the slowest driver on the roadway you think at the time and you get irritated that they can't move any faster, you know that thing on the bottom right is the gas pedal, push it down and move! (insert guilty hand raise here). We are always on to the next thing, multitasking along the way to get more done, be more productive, and missing out on just being present in the here and now!
Everywhere we turn there is something that diverts us from the here and now. Social media, news that we have no idea is fake or real, distract, divert, and never really seeing the reality that is this shit show of a world we live in! Everyone with an agenda, an opinion, and thinking their way is the only way! You know the whole "Karen" mentality! Being a Gen X'er I come from the whole FAAFO way, so if your going to come for me, you better be ready! But I digress, we all have a lot to learn, and a long way to go to get back to some sort of normalcy in our world, and at this point I fear that will never happen! It is sad that nobody is safe anywhere! The right blaming the left and vice versa, nobody coming together to work toward a common goal of making things better, or right! We all have become so lost in the world we live in, we have lost sight and control of the world around us! We have to stop now or our future and our children's future could be in serious trouble!
Life moves by at the speed of light it seems any more! I have been feeling sort of melancholy lately, it is fast approaching the anniversary of my mom's passing, and in a few short months our son will be graduating high school! Where has the time gone? I think of all the things he has done, and all that my mom has missed out on. If she could only see him walk across that stage, I know she would be so proud! When he was born he brought so much joy to her and my grandma! It makes me sad to think that their time was short lived. Being an only child of divorced parents, losing the rock of my life was the hardest thing I have ever experienced. I have a lot of regrets, and a lot of those have to do with not being in the present, not spending more time with her, and being a teen with a shitty attitude! If I had it all to do over again, there would be so many things I would change. If only we had the opportunity of a do over!
Unfortunately in life there are no do overs! We only have the gift of now, to do all the things we want to do, to say all the things we want to say! Don't ever take an opportunity for granted, and don't leave things unsaid. Tomorrow is never promised and regret is a horrible feeling! How many times have you heard someone say 'oh i am going to start my diet on Monday'? What is so special about Monday? If you are serious about losing weight and getting healthy there is no waiting for Monday, do it today! Do you go to work everyday thinking, 'I wish I could do something else'? Do you feel like you are stuck? Guess what? Google Indeed or Monster, you are far from stuck! No is the time to take action, and it is never to late to start over or try something new, believe me! Getting away from a toxic job is a whole other blog! But it is never too late to make a change! Change is scary but it is way better than regret and living a life that is not what you want!
Each and every day we wake up is a new opportunity to make a change, be a better person, do something we have always wanted to do! Stop thinking of doing something go out and do it! You know, there is no time like the present! The old cliche's are the best! Stop and smell the roses!!!! Today I want you to think about what you want to do, what regrets do you have, how can you be a better person, can you get healthier, do you need to lose weight, exercise more, do you hate your job, are you in a bad relationship, whatever the case may be, today is a new day and the first day of the rest of your life! If you didn't wake up tomorrow would you have any regrets? Are there things you wish you would have said or done? Here is the thing, tomorrow is not promised to anyone! You have today to take a long hard look at who you are, where you are, and is that what you want for the rest of what life you have left? Are you happy, do you spend your days in a fog just going through the motions a cog in the machine or are you embracing the here and now, taking time to do what you enjoy, spending time with people who you love and make you happy. Do you go to work inspired and feel appreciated for a hard days work, or again just that cog in the machine doing work and feeling stuck.
Life is meant to be lived, we have so many people and things telling us what to do, how to think and how to act! Everyone is so sensitive and gets butt hurt over whatever the new thing is today! Hell the color blue is going to be offensive soon at the rate we are going! I mean come on!!! I have never seen so many cry baby, offended people in all my life! Get over yourself! Nobody cares, move on! Do you boo, just be a good human! If you don't like something or don't agree with something, move on! Like me and the ungrateful lady! She has to live with being an ungrateful human, I don't have to be upset by her actions thats on her not me! I did my part to try and make a difference, be it ever so small! Its the small things that over time add up to big changes.
Today I want you to find a quiet spot to sit and reflect on life, where you are, where you have been and where you want to go! Be mindful as you go through your day, notice your attitude, your inner dialog, what do you eat, drink, how do you think, act and react? Are you moving in the right direction? Are you happy? Did you spend time with people you love and who make you feel good? Did you show kindness or compassion to others or did you ridicule and judge because they don't look like you, act like your or think like you? How boring would life be if we were all the same?? We can learn a lot of we just stop take a look around and really listen! You know whatever happened to the commandments of 'love thy neighbor' and 'do unto others that you would have done to you' or however it goes. I am a firm believer, but I am not a church goer so again not here to offend or get it wrong. I believe we all have faith and belief in our heart and that is what matters most. Again a whole other blog and topic!
I hope that you see my point in all of this, and that this second blog hits home with you. Hopefully me putting aside my irritation and re writing this helps someone who may be struggling or feeling like I do. Life is precious, and short! Stop wasting it on things that at the end of the day just don't matter! If your not happy move, make a change, your not a tree! Grow, learn, be better and do better every day! Embrace the suck, learn from it and move on! Take your face out of your phone and enjoy the small things the big things and don't miss out on living! You only get one chance, one opportunity, are your going to capture it or just let it slide? You know that song right! Now go get after it, live a life that at the end you will be proud of and nothing will be left undone or unsaid!
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