Many years ago, I was bemoaning to a friend that a work project was requiring much more time than I expected. He just laughed and said, “Kaye, it always takes more time.”
Have you ever noticed how your day gets away from you in terms of tasks accomplished? At day’s end, I often feel like “I didn’t do this, I didn’t do that.” Thus, the unfinished stuff gets shuffled to the next day and the to-do list gets ever longer.
All of us have those must do, should do, and would like to do items in our thoughts every morning. For example, I must pay bills, I should prepare a healthy dinner, and I would like to take a walk by the river.
But this triage sort of system has too much focus on life’s requirements and too little on the joys. Sidestepping life’s joys isn’t good. Maybe I should re-prioritize and put the joys first. Start the day with a walk, be sure to call a friend, take a nap. If needed, we can microwave something for dinner.
In the bigger picture of life, I am pondering our summer goals and choices. I always like that word, “pondering” from Mary, Jesus’ Mother, considering things. Maybe we all need to ponder more before we jump into things.
Right now, I am pondering our summer camping plans. I am the one in our family who has travel lust and starts the research to acquire reservations and coordinate our trips.
Honestly, from an age and health perspective, we don’t have that many years left to travel so my goal is to travel all we can as long as we can.
This year, I’m downsizing our trips to our beautiful state with fewer miles to get there and appreciation of our own back yard. I was so excited to move from the Midwest to Colorado some 50 years ago and have always been determined to tour it all.
I never, ever regretted my decision to move to Colorado even though I didn’t know one soul who lived here and started an entirely new career in Denver. That decision totally changed my life and I am so glad I took the leap to a new state and new opportunities.
This summer, we’re going to return to our favorite camping places, visit some new ones, and take time to enjoy the Colorado environment. It is amazing how many places we can get to in 3-4 hours from Meeker, set up our little trailer, relax, and soak up the Colorado sun.
Camping plans also take time, making reservations, avoiding the expensive spots (yes one wanted $85 per night for a camping site!), and not wear us out with too much travel all at once.
I will tweak the plans, adjust and add new spots as needed, and arrive at a good summer camping plan, however long it takes.
By KAYE SULLIVAN | Submitted to the Herald
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