Painting by Belynda Wilson Thomas
Our lives are fashioned by our choices. First, we make our choices. Then our choices make us. Anne Frank
It’s later than you think, hit me this morning as I looked in the mirror. Yesterday, my husband and I talked about making plans. We have a trip we still haven’t taken, and I said, “As long as we get to it by our fortieth anniversary, which is still a few years away, it’s all good.” But, it isn’t a few years away, it’s next year. I’ve been thinking about our thirty-seventh anniversary, but it is our thirty-ninth anniversary we celebrate in a week.
When did I lose two years? I’ve been in my little world thinking we have time, and one of the problems is, even though many of us are living longer, we might not have more healthy years.
My three-year-old-grandson just said,” Grandma, are you going to get old and can’t carry me?”
I said, “Yes, but you’ll be big.”
He said, “Then I can carry you.”
Sweet, but also sad! We spend so much time dreaming of things we’ll get to when there is more time or money. What if there will never be enough time or money for everything, but there will be enough of both for what we prioritize? We don’t know what life has in store for us. Will we have a long, healthy life, fit everything in on our bucket list, or by putting things off, are we in peril of never getting to them?
Only one member of a couple finally taking their dream vacation is almost a cliché. We don’t want to be that couple. It can be easy to fool ourselves into thinking we have more time than we do. If I’m lucky and get a long life like Mom and Dad, there will be time, but will there be the energy and good health needed to traipse across the world? Sometimes a postponed trip still happens, but some of the people we planned to see are no longer with us, or world events change, so going to certain parts of the world or seeing certain landmarks and points of interest are no longer possible.
Every choice comes with consequences. Once you make a choice, you must accept responsibility. You cannot escape the consequences of your choices, whether you like them or not. Roy T. Bennett
I’m so grateful we took a family trip to see Mom the year before she died. It wasn’t a trip we planned for years; it was the realization that it’s now or never, so we talked about it, planned it, booked it, and went. Too much planning might be part of why we’ve never taken the trip we’ve talked about, but never made happen. Maybe we like the idea more than the reality.
Time waits for no one; we need to make choices. We can’t do everything, but what if we can do what we think is important? We’ve always had constraints of one kind or another. Is it a fantasy to think we don’t have to choose between two goods, or sometimes between the best of the choices before us?
Life is a chess match. Every decision that you make has a consequence to it. P.K. Subban
The hardest decisions in life are not between good and bad or right and wrong, but between two goods or two rights. Joe Andrew
There are always two choices. Two paths to take, one is easy, and its only reward is that it’s easy. Unknown
Thank you for reading this post. Please come back and read some more. Have a blessed day filled with gratitude, joy, and love.
