Enjoy the Drive

Do you ever look back on life and wonder "where did the time go?" One minute you are packing up and moving from your home state of Maryland to unfamiliar Georgia with your new little family. Then you blink and you are now packing up your moving truck with your preemie baby (well okay he's 6'1 and 24 years old but he was a preemie when we came to Georgia! Moms of Preemies can relate) to move back home to Maryland from Georgia. It's been 24 incredible years in Georgia. From life events, new career paths and relationships, the word incredible is pretty accurate. But as I think back on those last 24 years, the question that keeps popping in my head is, while jumping through all the obstacles to provide a good life for my children, did I enjoy the drive on my travel on the road of life?

The short yet accurate answer to that question is...absolutely not. Honestly, I do not think I even understood what that meant until recently. You see, in October 2019 I received information that forced me to look at that road of life, my road of life. My dad received a diagnosis that none of us were prepared to hear. I had been working in the long term healthcare industry for the past eighteen years and had struggled for the last three years as a nursing home administrator. Although I loved the residents, families and staff, it was by far the hardest job of my entire LIFE! I always felt like the hamster on the wheel running fast and getting no where. I had become crippled by the building thinking I could not be more than a 15-20 minute radius of the building because at any minute, it was going to blow up. I will say it was probably more of my paranoia and desire to master the life of a nursing home administrator than the building would truly blow up, but in my mind (and those who know me well), it was always going to be a full explosion. But that all came to a halt 10/16/2019. On that day and those to follow, I found myself re-evaluating that road of life and reminiscing on yes, all the great moments, but also the missed moments. Missed moments because I thought I could worry about moments later. Missed moments because I knew at that time, I could not get those moments back. They could not be recreated. Moments are those memorable times with family and friends. Thanksgiving dinners, school holiday programs, or just having Sister time drinking coffee in my parent's kitchen.

But as most of us, I thought had plenty of time. Never considering that time was not standing still for me. That later I kept putting off, was now today. I decided I could not afford to miss any more moments. I had to create moments. I did not want to look back at my journey again and still not taken time to add more moments along my journey. As the cliche says, I was the definition of insanity. Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. All signs (including a world wide pandemic) showed I had the opportunity to start making changes now. So I did. I decided it was time to close the chapter and start a new one. A chapter where I could be more present in the moments. After eighteen years, I left a career I never thought I would walk away from. I left a town that I had grown to love so much and decided to get off of the insanity ride. After all, I needed a different result!

So, here we are today with the first blog of What's Next?! If you take anything away from this post, please let it be this...make sure you enjoy the drive on your road of life. Don't get so caught up in the day to day life that you miss the moments that make you smile when you are having a rough day. Or those moments of reflection when you are remembering what your Dad used to tell you as a kid, "you have the rest of your life to work, enjoy being a kid". To tweak that for today's message: you only have one life to live, don't forget to make room for the moments so you can enjoy the drive. You can illuminate your path with beautiful scenery....

How do your moments brighten your road of life?