Sometimes our younger selves are smarter than we are.
The truth is, wisdom comes in waves– sometimes it crashes against our shore and we are utterly changed, sometimes it sways in the slightest ways. There are times that my life has been like a lovely song– but then I get off beat, fall out of tune, and forget the words. And when that happens, the best thing to do is pick up the sheet music and try again.
So I’m trying again.
This is from a post I made back in January of 2012 about how I was keeping my life together. I actually need to read through the whole thing to gain more wisdom into the mess that is my life– but this one gem keeps rising to the surface, so for now, I’m going to work on Lifedays. I wrote:
“One person a day- I’ve been wanting to do this for YEARS—and now it’s happening. You see, I have always wondered, “What are the two main days we associate with a person?” Think about it for a second. If you said, “Their birthday and the day they die” then YAY! That’s what I was thinking. If you said something else, well, you could be right. But let’s assume you’re not so I can make my point. The thing about a birthday is that a person is flooded with greetings and messages and gifts for something that they had no control over—it’s just the day they… well, you know. And also when there are 200 hundred Facebook birthday messages, each one is slightly less cool because you have so many. And when a person dies, we reminisce and say all the things that we loved about them—and often say how we wish that we had said those things to our dearly departed. What if we said all that we’ve been wanting to say about the life they have lived BEFORE they died and on a day other than their BIRTHDAY? My idea is Life Day- Pick the people in your life and give them a day on the calendar. On that day, love on them. Send them a message, get lunch with them, celebrate your relationship and their life. I’ve been doing this for a couple weeks and, man, it’s such a blessing to bless other people.”
I think I maintained Lifedays for a few months back then, but then I let it die and moved on. Well, I’m bringing it back! The people that have walked alongside me, that I have come to know and love, each have a day for the next few months. I just need to make each day special in little ways– and keep moving forward. It’s so easy with all these cool ideas to fall down and get frustrated and stuck. I get stuck too often. So hopefully I can run ahead in this hope, best expressed by Mother Teresa: