Something To Do Before the End of the World
Generations of Love
The end of 2010 brought a lot for all of us… Now we are just past the spring equinox and a veritable shit storm has ensued. With all the terribly difficult things that the world is experiencing it’s not easy to feel like there’s much hope, but there is.
You being you… is the most natural thing to do, as well as the most productive. You may have thought you would have accomplished a lot more by now and are feeling particularly snarky about yourself, instead of happy.
In my own experience, for years I thought that having a new year’s resolution list was a good thing to do… but usually I couldn’t ever find the damn list at the end of the year to see if I’d accomplished anything I’d wanted to. Then I would think that maybe I’d noted it in my journal, but I often neglected to note what year that journal covered. Instead of lamenting not knowing what I may have intended to accomplish, I thought why not just see what I had been up to…
For you… and as a soothing exercise, spend a few moments considering what you’ve done in so far in this lifetime… not just the year. In these times, wouldn’t it feel good to do something that made you feel good about your life, or at the very least forgive yourself for being ridiculous at times?
Here’s my example…
- I’ve stayed up all night for many, many nights for reasons other than partying…
- I’ve spent hours of my life swimming back in forth in a swimming pool…
- I realized one day that everyone loves me, but sometimes they don’t realize it when I’m there…
- I’ve planted years of seeds in my garden, and eaten the fruit of those seeds a few months later…
- I nursed my kids for 13 years (straight)… and I don’t need a boob job…
- I’ve lost several friends but didn’t know why or what I’d done to lose them…
- I’ve had to study algebra 1 at least 5 times, but I still don’t really understand it or use it…
- I’ve been betrayed by a few very important people in my life …
- I’ve lived 18,615 days so far (give or take)
- I’ve changed thousands of diapers, and then washed them…
- I’ve kissed many, many little boo boos and made them “all better”…
- I’ve picked avocados from my tree and put them in a paper bag so they would ripen…
- I’ve watched the sun set all the way until the green flash happened… like 7,000 times
- I’ve made love to the same man for 14 years and still find it really delicious and perfect …
- I’ve danced on my toes, really ON MY TOES, until I found the drums which sent me into my hips…
- I’ve worn an LBD (little black dress) and felt really beautiful for several hours in it – a number of times…
- I’ve gained and lost 345 lbs in my life, so far… consciously (70 lbs/kid x 5)
- I’ve started writing five books and haven’t finished one of them yet…
- I’ve had my heart broken several times… the glue that put it back together was courage…
- I’ve given birth at home to my babies and always thought, “you idiot, this really hurts” each time labor began…
- I have a number of wrinkles on my face that I didn’t have there last year…
- I’ve left a marriage of 16 years 16 years ago…
- I didn’t enjoy the company people I was “supposed” to hang around with sometimes… so I left..
- I’ve been a vegan, a raw foody, a macro-biotic, a flexitarian, a vegetarian. I’ve dabbled in beef, dairy, turkey, bacon, chicken… I’ve done all that and I’ve lived to tell the tale…
- I went to four high schools and two colleges, but never got a degree…
- I’ve had a son, who I didn’t birth but got to love even after he wasn’t my son any more…
- I’ve learned to appreciate more than to be afraid ….
- I’ve been given the opportunity to raise 5 children, and they have been my very best teachers (when I listened to them)…
- I’ve shaved my armpits, and I haven’t (for years). Either way is fine…
- I’ve cried for other people’s pain as well as my own, with the same passion…
- Kodak commercials never made me cry…
- I’ve laughed so hard at the dinner table when someone farted… that I cried…
- (I’ve also laughed in my yoga class when someone farted, but somehow no one else thinks it’s as funny as I do in there)…
- I’ve lived on the east coast, the west coast and in the middle of the country. I still love the mountains better than anywhere else…
- I’ve been glad to be alive more than I haven’t…
It’s remarkable to me that I’m accomplishing so much and it doesn’t bother me that it’s not all that important to anyone else. In fact, it’s cool that it doesn’t have to change or save the world.
The world will take care of herself, my job is to appreciate myself… and show a really great example to anyone else whose interested…
In the meantime – (you know, before the world changes) - I’ll keep accomplishing my life and be me, while I appreciate anything that I possibly can.
Try doing this for yourself… its soothing and quite a lot of fun…
Here’s to your very best “right now”