Forget the past: doing a new thing

Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness… ~ Isaiah 43:18-19

Recently, I wrote about unpacking #allthefeels. And I still have a more to unpack. I think, in a way, it’s been about…[read more]

A lesson in irony: in memory of Rob

 

Life can prove ironic in the simple, the mundane. And in the crushing blows, the fracture between hope and fate. This week, I discovered that Marlene, a cashier at my neighborhood grocery store, had been writing letters to Rob—a cashier who was diagnosed in 2015 with stage 3 lung cancer. I haven’t seen Rob since we spoke in August 2016, right before his birthday trip to Hawaii, and then, upon his return from the tropical getaway, he took an extended leave from his job to tackle one of more significance: the fight for his life. Just the other day, I wrote a letter and brought it to the market the next morning for Marlene to include in her envelope. As I concluded my shopping, another cashier greeted me and I knew, without words, that Rob’s fight was over. Read more about Rob:  ‘Slow down, listen more…,’ ‘How (not) to be miserable…’ and ‘Borrowed time…’ And don’t wait for Someday.

How is irony at work in your life?

Biding our time

At first, I was going to title this post, “Doing time,” as it relates to life and its rote, mundane tasks. But it’s more than rising each day at a prescribed hour, eating breakfast, showering and dressing, doing time at work or school, coming home and eating dinner, washing up before bed and repeating it all the next morning. It’s about learning what we need to do to get where we want to go, practicing patience with others and ourselves, leaning on those in our support system and returning the favor, and waiting for conditions to be opportune for change and/or growth. And it’s not always going to be pretty. Sometimes it will rain on our parades, we won’t like the food in front of us and our friends refuse to come out and play. Or maybe we need solitary confinement to get our heads screwed on straight. It’s about attaining the most from Today while keeping our hopes and dreams alive.

How does biding your time look?

Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net.