The gift of not waiting for another day
One of the gifts of the last few months has been the awareness that time is fleeting and it’s my responsibility to make the most of what I am given.
For example, we live minutes from Wrightsville Beach. People spend thousands of dollars to vacation here, but I rarely take advantage of this treasure which is easily accessible to me.
I realized recently that I often think about taking my morning walk down by the water, but I always find a reason to just walk in my neighborhood, thinking, “I’ll get down there another day.”
But “tomorrow” becomes the next day and then the next, and it becomes weeks - months! years! - and I’m still walking in my neighborhood every morning.
Last week I decided to change that. And I am so glad I did because had I not, I would have missed moments like these.
Last night I watched an episode of This is Us. It’s the scene from Season 4, shortly after Rebecca finds out she’s losing her memory, when Randall and Kevin find her at the MET, staring at a painting. I love this scene so much.
“My life has been full of next times, things I always assumed I would get to eventually, but now I realize that I am running out time to do them . . . I want to make up for all of my next times.”
I’m realizing I want to choose “right now,” not “next time” or “tomorrow” or some undefined day in the future. I want to know what it means to live and not just be alive. I want to say “yes” more than I say, “No.”
I, too, want to make up for all of my “next times.”
And that starts with simple decisions like getting in the Jeep and driving down to Wrightsville Beach each morning.
