Being flexible, changing perspectives
I had a perfect chance to be reminded of this fact on Sunday. When we discovered something SERIOUSLY wrong with our plumbing. I’ll spare you the messy details, but let’s just say that we are using as little water as possible in the house right now and doing our best to get a sewer line repair team out ASAP. So Monday was spent in a futile effort to build a plan rather than sharing a trail with folks heading up to Buck Mountain via Elbo Creek. And now I am composing this note instead of heading to Hood River with Patti, Bella & Milo to hike among the balsamroots. People always say patience is a virtue and I believe them. It just isn’t really one of mine. So this sitting around, waiting for busy people to make time to help us is a challenge.
And then I came across a lovely column written by Charles Blow in the NY Times recently. Titled “My Second Phase of Adulthood,” it talks (among many other things) about being intentional about how we approach ourselves. Here’s an excerpt (and a picture of balsam root):
I have started to manage my regrets and to reduce them, to forgive myself for foolish mistakes and reckless choices, to remember that we are all just human beings stumbling through this life, trying to figure it out, falling down and getting back up along the way. I have learned to cut myself some slack and get on with being a better person.
I must say that the pandemic may also be contributing to all this. I have fundamentally changed during it, been changed by it, like many others I suppose. After I got over the initial shock of it feeling like the world as I knew it was coming to an end, I became incredibly introspective, and I didn’t like some of what I saw. So, I changed it.
I decided to be healthier, physically, mentally and spiritually, and I decided that I needed to make my mark on the world, the biggest, boldest mark I was destined to make, while I still had time and energy, but also to be thankful for the road my life had already taken.
When I am gone, and people remember my name, I want some of them to smile.
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