A Time to Look Ahead

“You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.” — Maya Angelou

On my brown chair, (which fits just right for my short stature), I sit. I can see the wind blow the long spindly branches of a tree out the window. Cold but no snow. Dreary, darkish and almost oppressive, but I try not to let it inside. I keep it out.

Being a fairly optimistic person I’ve decided weather wasn’t going to keep me from writing on the first day of 2024. 

 

Life stuff is on my mind. What’s ahead and what’s passed. No one can say a year passes without their life being altered in some way! It would be untrue.

It changes constantly. We celebrate, improve, regress, cope, struggle, assess and move forward.

There’s something to the statement “Live each day as if it’s your last”. Not that I think it’s possible, but I do think we could get rid of a lot of non-essential, trivial habits and obsessions that take up big chunks of the day. 

To decide what we need and want are really the hardest decisions we ever make. They turn into hundreds of thousands of choices each year. 

My cousin, Dick and his family, lost his wife two days before Christmas and my friend Marian and her husband, Vaughn, lost his sister on Christmas morning. Heartbreaking. 

Future plans are forever altered by losses. Life forces us to decide what we value especially when we deal with a loved one's death.

Awhile ago I had a fellow lane-swimmer at the YMCA, and mentioned to him he must have some tough goals for himself. “You look so determined”, I told him. 

He shared why his workout seemed so intense.

He was hit by a truck while running a year or so ago. He said he had no control over his body for 6 months.  He had both knees replaced and pointed to a scar on his upper abdomen about the size of half a small pizza. 

“I wanted to live,” he said, “I have kids!!” I listened in awe and told him it must have given him a lot of time to think. He replied, “Oh, yeah, lots of dark time alone and dealing with pain. But, I wanted to live.”

“I wanted to live”. A huge conclusion. Lives shift dramatically and we narrow our focus, reassess what we want.

Sometimes it takes dark, grieving times to figure out exactly what we want. I think it comes down to what we value. Not what others value. It’s easy for it to get murky. It’s our job to clean it up so we can see ahead. 

Yeah, 2024 is an ahead time. A chance to sift through the sludge. Today is a good place to start. Pick up the right tool to begin.