Wednesday, May 2, 2012

A Letter to Myself (and to anyone else who's interested, really)

Dear Sir,

If you don't stop to appreciate what you have, if you don't stop to realize you're absolutely the luckiest person in the world because of all the love you get from the people around you, then you don't deserve any of that.

Don't forget you're actually experiencing the best time of your life. Don't forget that, or you don't deserve the memories.

A post from Jay, the blogger at Halftime Lessons, shows one unforgettable moment in the life of a family. Nothing has been achieved that day. The to-do list was simply cut and pasted to the next day. Another person (like me, for example) could have looked back at that day and see nothing but wasted time.

And yet, it was a perfect day.

Step away from the tasks. Step away from the goals. Remind yourself to appreciate the present. Constantly remind yourself. Write it with a Sharpie on your computer screen, just in case. Appreciate the present, or everything you do, everything you push for, everything you achieve is meaningless.

Go outside. It's springtime.








springtime




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5 comments:

  1. Thank you so much. I really needed to be reminded of all these life-or-death truths.

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  2. If I wrote on my computer screen, how would I blog? I imagine I'm just in some kind of honeymoon phase with it right now and it'll pass soon enough. I realized how much I love writing and it started to become all consuming.
    I'm not going to do something crazy like give up TV for a week....but I agree, we do need to step away from it all and look around at exactly what we have outside our door.
    Cheers Oren!

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  3. Thanks, RJ and Canadian Dad.

    And Canadian Dad, if there's anything positive I got from smoking a pack of cigarettes for 15 years, it's that quitting taught me I had more will power than I'd ever imagined. Sure, I had the shakes for a couple of TV-free days, and sure I found myself staring at the remote, but in the end, not only did we make it alive, but I also found the time to teach my boy to play Twinkle-Twinkle (aka A-B-C) on the keyboard, and we spent a lot of time outside. I'm not saying I'll be having another TV-free week any time soon, only that people who don't have TVs in the house may not be JUST pretentious jerks. (Although they probably are.)

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  4. One thing about the internet, sometimes the most important posts are the ones that people skip. Maybe because so many are looking for just a lighthearted break from thinking important thoughts, or maybe any one of a thousand reasons, but I really wanted to stop and comment on this one.

    It's so easy to be overcome by life's difficulties. But I will always remember the saying, "Life is what happens while you are making other plans." It's true. We work, we plan, we dream... but what we don't realize is that the 95% of our time we spend doing that is the life we are making for ourselves, leaving only 5% to be what we really want.

    Every moment we live is the memory we will leave to those who knew us. If we must work, then we must do it with love and lightness of spirit to those around us while still doing the very best we can. That is what they will be left with when we are gone. We can't waste it.

    And when it's time to quit, then quit and be fully there for the quiet times or family time. Let's not rob our loved ones of what they need from us.

    Great post.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks. These are all things I need to remind myself all the time.

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