November 23, 2020

If you could be you for the rest of your life, what would you do?

If I could be me for the rest of my life I would live for things like this:

Today checking out at the grocery store, the young woman at the cash register (And with me that’s between 18 and 30) asked me if I was ready for Thanksgiving. I laughed and said, “I just go where they tell me to go and do what they tell me to do.” We laughed together and I asked her if she were ready for Thanksgiving and she said, “I just go where they tell me to go and do what they tell me to do.” More laughter, and I said, “We have the plan for making it through the holidays.” I live for this kind of interchange.

And this: At lunch this past week I saw a woman with her, probably two year old daughter in her arms waiting for a table, and the joy those two women were having with each other was delightful. They had it right and I hope they keep it up for the rest of their lives, and I’m confident that they will.

And this: Coming out of a different restaurant at lunch I watched a, say 6 year old boy holding hands with his, say, 4 year old sister, skipping from the restaurant to their car.

My days have enough of these kinds of experiences tucked away in them for me to be conscious of looking for them somewhere in each one. It is a wonderful way of inserting expectant wonder into the days that are left to me.