APPRECIATING OUR LIVES

Today is Sunday, so I was watching one of my favorite TV shows: "Sunday Morning".

One of the segments was about the now 70 year old play called "Our Town", which is probably one of the most produced plays there is, and, I think, most of us are familiar with it. I personally have never seen it, for some odd reason.

At the end of this play, one of the main characters, Emily Gibbs, dies in childbirth and is allowed to come back for just one day...a day of her choice..any day of her life. She chooses her 12th birthday. She sees her mother cooking and hears her father's voice....

For some reason, this immediately brought tears to my eyes because I had to wonder: if I were given that choice, what day would I choose? What day out of the now 67 years of my life would I choose? How could anyone make that choice? I can't. Can you?
Oh, I would love to spend another day with my mom and dad...(and all those loved ones who have passed on! But to pick ONE day? Impossible!

I have been fortunate to have too many days that have been really, really extraordinary and happy to be able to pick one over another!

And it's impossible to "appreciate every moment of your life"...as the host of Sunday Morning said: "you'd be doing nothing else but being a spectator in your own life because you'd be too busy analyzing each moment".

Nevertheless, too often we get caught up in negative details; you know...the ones that irritate us and make us feel sorry for ourselves...the ones that push out the more numerous happy moments, those ordinary ones which don't get our attention and that we seem to take for granted.

Some days I just find myself outside on a beautiful sunny day, turning my face up towards the sun and loving the feel of the warmth on my skin. Or smelling the wonderful, fresh fragrance of the earth after it rains. I love autumn when the leaves are brilliant on the ground and on the trees...there's something about the light at that time of year that is so special. Being an artist, I notice things like that.
I love windy days, and thunder and lightning, too.

And spending time with my children and grandchildren are at the top of the list! My grandchildren range in age from 24 years old down to 3 years old and they are all so wonderfully bright and funny and interesting! Each one of them, all five, always have something interesting and insightful to say, and listening to them is such fun.

We tend to take so many of the ordinary things of our lives for granted...until they aren't there. One lesson I learned recently was how I took the simple act of walking for granted...until I had a total knee replacement surgery and for 5 months I could not walk. It was humbling, for sure!
I was in a physical rehab facility for more than 2 1/2 of those months...during which time spring came...and went...and summer began. When I at last came home it was June and the trees at my house, which were just beginning to show the tiniest bit of green when I left in April were in full leaf, and flowers, which I didn't even know were in my yard (I'd moved in here in the dead of winter at the beginning of February) were in full bloom. It was a surreal experience! I barely recognized my house. I felt as if I'd been gone for years!

My children were wonderful through the whole miserable recovery period. It's now September, 5 months after the surgery, and I am just recently able to walk, after much therapy, with a slight limp, (which, hopefully, will eventually disappear)....and I just started driving again a week ago...something else I had taken for granted! For someone as independent as I have always been, it was indescribably hard for me to depend upon anyone else for anything...and yet, I had to learn to "let them bless me", as my youngest daughter has a habit of saying.

I learned just how lucky I am to have the children I do...and I appreciate them more than words can say, and every day we spend together is precious!

So.....can you pick one day you'd like to live over again? If so, my hat's off to you...I can't!