If you could see my face right now, you’d be staring at one of the biggest, stupidest grins and you would not for one second doubt its sincerity.
I am at this moment reposing in a room at my Great Aunt + Uncle’s home in hot, humid Oklahoma. I am smiling like a fool because I am overcome with love and happiness to be here. My Great Aunt + Uncle, who are 84 and 87, were supposed to have come for our wedding last October, but the night before their flight, my Great Uncle was hospitalized with pneumonia and they were forced to cancel their trip. Two months later my Great Aunt’s heart nearly stopped and she had to have a pacemaker implanted. And I don’t know how it couldn’t have, but the fragility of life slapped me right across the face and I immediately started making plans to visit them, because I couldn’t countenance the thought of my new husband never meeting two of the most influential people in my life. So, after much schedule wrangling, postponement and juggling, we are finally here. And I am grinning like a fool.
Of all the things these two have taught me, what most strikes my soul is the balance they’ve found between optimism and realism. Through death, war, cancer — you name it — they maintain positivity at levels that make your heart soar just to be near them. But they are clear that it’s a conscious choice, not always the luck of good circumstance. What happens to us may elate us, teach us, frighten us, and change us, but we are the makers of our lives while we have them. As my Great Aunt said the other night, “I always like to imagine it perfect and work from there, even if it isn’t to be.” At the time she was talking about her garden, but I’d be a fool not to see applications for this sentiment elsewhere.
So with that in mind…
April Goals (March holdovers in italics):
- Attend my annual photography workshop
- Plan a May trip to Southern California (work AND pleasure!)
- Visit with my most favorite relatives
- Plant a small garden
- Remind some people I care about that they’re loved and important
- Finish my self-assessment on paper
- Organize my office so it makes me less sad to sit in there
- Finish and send some thank you cards I’ve been procrastinating on
- Reupholster our couch
- Blog about our wedding!
Completed March Goals:
- Read “Start With Why” by Simon Sinek
- Order a print I’ve been eyeing for my office
- Spend good quality time with my husband (who was out of town for more days in February than he was home)
- Schedule a physical
- Finish painting the interior of our house
- Bust out my adult version of a kids’ chore chart and begin the implementation of a refined schedule by getting my house in shape!
by Molly
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