Whenever
any of us face an obstacle or a detour in life, it’s good to try and
find the positive in the experience. Doing so not only lifts our
spirits and yields a glimmer of hope, but sometimes provides the
opportunity to reflect. I’ve spent some of my days while confined
pondering this wake-up call, what it means, what I can change. And
while I’m not yet finished with my stint as a blogging hermit, I have
gained clarity about what I wish for myself once I’m up and dancing
once again.So here’s my wishes, a brief but not necessarily
complete list to add to my life, once the current hermit-like existence
is retired for good. You may notice these can’t be bought, but are
experiences that can only be sought, and only with intent. None of
these will come easily unless I accept their possibilities and let go
of obstacles in my path.
- I wish to learn more about
clouds and their shapes, what they mean when they do their heavenly
dance up there. Then I want to lie on green grass for hours and just
stare at the them, and let my mind decide what their shapes remind me
of, like I used to do when I was an idle youth.
- I
wish never to lose this newly gained slower pace of life. Why do we
have to be knocked down with a proverbial 2×4 to understand that life
doesn’t have to be measured by how much we get done in one day, by the
bulge of our bank accounts, or the number of pages in our resumes?
- I
wish never to return to the days of loud alarm clocks and panicked feet
racing through showers and suits just to make a commute on time. I like
my new early mornings of leisure breakfasts and casual readings of
paper and email.
This is a wishlist that really appeals to me, especially the last bit about the daily rush. The wishlist continues ...
- I wish to continue becoming better friends with the
residents of my bookcases and lose myself in the pages of
long-ago-bought but little-read volumes of joy and sadness and wonder
found in those magic pages with all the funny little marks.
- I
wish to be available to help friends and family who’ve supported me
through this without complaint. There is no substitute for such support
from any service or stranger. Nothing works as well as having those
close to you close to you during hard times.
- I
wish to accept that music, nature, writing, and reading are not only
enjoyable pursuits but basic requirements for my sanity. And thus I
wish to make sure that my life, from now forward, has daily doses of
all of them.
- I wish to stop thinking about
and dwelling over those parasitic shoulda-dogmas of my past and stay
present-minded in today. If life is about the journey and not the
destination, then what benefit is there in looking backwards or
wondering what’s around the corner? Here, now, is all that counts and
all that ever really counted.
- I wish to
repair friendships of the past, nurture those of the present, and
cultivate more in the future. Next to health, the depth and breadth of
friendships significantly impact one’s quality of life more than any
remaining influence.
- And finally, I wish
to accept that no journey is pleasurable if the vehicle cannot go the
distance. Health is more valuable than all the gold and jewels in the
world, for without it there is no journey of happiness, no pleasure in
being present-minded. You can read about the wonders of the world from
the comfort of an armchair, but that’s knowledge not experience. No
movie or documentary replaces the real-world experience of being there,
no matter where “there?? is. Thus, I wish to give my body and mind the
opportunity to carry me through the wonders of my journey ahead.If
I could compare this list to those I’ve created in the past, I doubt
there would be any similarity. We often wish for riches, or a better
job, a nicer house, a better car. Those things are tangible and subject
to decline, disrepair, and rust. I haven’t mentioned where I’d like to
live, or how, because at this point those aspects are not critical. If
I don’t embrace the essence of the list above, it won’t matter where or
how I live because I’ll simple be repeating mis-steps of the past. And
it’s not that my life has been a criminal waste, far from it. But the
glory tends to be in the details, in that last ten percent of how we
live our lives, and I believe and hope through making these wishes come
true I can bridge that final ten percent.
What do you think?