And the Good News Is . . .

I really tried to write a substantive post today (this was late Thursday night) but life keeps on ticking and responsibilities are . . . well . . . responsibilities.  This is good, but at times I, being a somewhat responsible person, don’t get to do what I want to do. Someone once told me that I could do/be/have anything I wanted, I just couldn’t do/be/have everything I wanted. In a nutshell, I have to make choices. I am not talking about earth-shattering, life-changing choices today, just the everyday, run-of-the-mill choices we all have to make. For instance, I really wanted to go to the lake this evening to shoot some sunset photographs. Instead I washed clothes. . . four loads to be exact. Another for instance, I wanted to venture out with my camera to take a long walk at a nearby park. Instead I worked on resumes and actually submitted two. The entire day was like that: dishes washed, clothes washed, dried and folded, carpet vacuumed, furniture dusted, silver polished (yes, I polish silver.)

Our western culture (USA) strongly encourages us to do what we want, don’t let mundane responsibilities get in the way of enjoying life; make big bucks and retire early, etc. There are certainly times when the healthier thing to do is to leave the clothes for another day, or postpone the vacuuming until the evening. But today was not one of those times. I missed out on some fun activities~my choice. No one forced me. I didn’t write the beautifully profound post that I had hoped for. No lake. No park. But the good news is that I accomplished a lot of things that make our lives more orderly and manageable.

Generally, if given the choice, I opt for the more free-spirited adventures (well, “adventure” is overstating a bit). But when the free-spirited, do what you want activities rule our lives, left unchecked, chaos ensues and stresses mount.

The good news is that clothes are clean, resumes submitted, apartment neat, a lot accomplished. A load of mini-worries was addressed and are off my agenda (for a bit). This is good because scheduled activities for the next two weeks are daunting. Courses for the next quarter open tomorrow (so I’m back in classes for 10 weeks!). Yom Kippur begins at sunset tomorrow (Friday) and continues for 25 hours. The Festival of Booths (Succot) begins Wednesday night and goes through Saturday night, followed by the same next week.

This maddening schedule for the upcoming days presents a dilemma. Blogging has become part of my life. I thoroughly enjoy it. I enjoy reading your blogs and getting to know you. I enjoy seeing you at my site and reading your comments. For the next 10 weeks though, I will have to make choices. My proclivity is to blog everyday (I have two blogs in addition to this one) and to spend hours reading what you have to say at your sites. On the other hand, I have a responsibility to others (and myself) that will require a great deal of time and energy. In the long run however, I have a dream and for the past year and a half I have made strides toward fulfilling that dream. Blogging fits into that puzzle, but so does becoming a licensed professional clinical counselor. The daily grind gets old, and frankly a bit boring at times, as does washing clothes or working on resumes. But the vision of reaching my dream and accomplishing my goals motivates me to keep engaging the not-so-fun activities because anticipation of the fun to come when I reach the prize is priceless.

So, the good news is I accomplished a lot today by being responsible and doing boring chores. Things got done. The good news is tomorrow another quarter begins that, while it may be trying and even boring at times, will move me closer to my goal. The good news is tomorrow evening begins Yom Kippur and next week more holidays as we make atonement for the mistakes of the past and plan to do better in the future. The good news is, this is all good news.

No beautiful sunsets tonight, but there will be others to see on another day. No profoundly wonderful or spellbinding post for this blog now, but that, too, will be written another time. Tonight my eye is on larger, life-enriching goals. My presence, as in quarters past, will be more sparse for a while depending on the rhythm of my classes, but I’ll still pop my head in and try to keep up with what’s going on in the blogging world and with my blogging friends if not daily, then hopefully weekly.

Y’all have a great weekend, and I’ll see you soon! 🙂

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