Sunday, February 14, 2016

Seize the Day


I originally wrote this post for Family and Faith Matters in 2014.
 
 
I have a confession to make. I am a natural born procrastinator, unlike my good husband. He likes to know that when the sun goes down at the end of each day, his efforts have made a difference and he can check things off of the ongoing list that he carries in his head.  One day I found a list written on the white board on the side of our fridge. I was glancing through it when one item caught my eye. There, in bold red capitals, were the words, KISS YOUR WIFE. The rest of the items got erased one by one but that one stayed for as long as there was a list. It made me smile. Those three words would jump out at me whenever I went into the kitchen. They let me know that I was more important than anything else that needed doing.

I’ve learned to set goals and to reach them eventually. I may not like endless lists of jobs to be done and I suppose I will always have a tendency to put things off until tomorrow, but people are too important to be allowed to slip through the cracks.

We live in a world of todays and none of us knows how many of those we may have. We’ve lost a number of friends in recent years, some of them suddenly and without warning through accidents or heart attacks or devastating illness. As we grieve each loss, we are achingly reminded that none of us really knows what today will bring. We have our goals and our plans, our dreams for the future, and yet, today may be the only day we have.

I can’t really afford to be a procrastinator when it comes to the people in my life. There are some things that shouldn’t be postponed. Things like forgiveness, simple appreciation, random acts of kindness, and words like “I’m sorry”, “I love you” or “I am so very proud of you”.  I don’t want to let opportunities for the really important things slip by me because I am telling myself that there’s always tomorrow. That just may not be true.

We’ve all heard the term Carpe Diem or Seize the Day. It doesn’t sound like something a natural born procrastinator would live by but I think it’s a good motto. Perhaps it’s time to take some of my good intentions and put feet on them.  Are there words that need saying or people I should see? I need to make this day count because it may be all that I have.

 

 

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