Well, it’s Friday, so welcome aboard the Friday Follies Train!!! Thank you so much for your comments last week and every day for that matter. I’m glad you can relate to some of my ramblings. Your positive feedback makes my little heart sing.
I guess because I used to be a teacher I like to share lessons I think I’ve learned in life, especially when they might help someone else even a teeny bit, so here’s one about one of my regrets…I used to buy birthday presents early for family members so I wouldn’t get caught unprepared, and that habit allowed me to take my time and buy things on sale to save money. I had bought my mother some casual clothes for her birthday coming up in July. Since she liked the watch I wore, I had decided to give that to her also. I’d put the gifts on a shelf in the closet. Because I’m so messy, they would sometimes fall on the floor when I’d open the door. I didn’t know it then, but maybe they were also trying to tell me something.
It was a cold night in March when Mother died totally unexpectedly. Gone way too soon – she was only in her fifties. Some woman said to me, “Everything works out for the best, Honey.” I said, “No it doesn’t.” Mother would never see those cool things that I had been saving for her and I wouldn’t see her eyes light up when I gave her that watch she loved. They had her dressed in pink in the casket. I knew she liked yellow, so I bought her a yellow outfit and put that watch on her wrist – since I couldn’t turn back time that’s all I could do. I didn’t know then that we should have talked about a lot of things. There was a big gaping hole in my heart that losing her caused and that I wasn’t prepared for. I wish I hadn’t waited. But the fact that I didn’t give her these material things while she was alive was a small regret next to the big one: I had lost my mother and I didn’t get to thank her for giving me life.
When I went back to California from the funeral, there was a package in the mail from her. She was smarter than I. She didn’t wait. She mailed my presents in March. My birthday’s in November.
The lesson of course is this…
Don’t save all those love gifts for special occasions
Life may bring an unexpected surprise and take advantage of you
Treasure every single moment and don’t take life for granted
And maybe you won’t regret what you did or didn’t do
We’re not given the promise of another birthday or even another smile
So don’t ever wait to celebrate
Fate doesn’t ask for our permission to take a life away
And tomorrow it may just be too late
Until next Friday, I hope you’ll stay healthy and happy and safe. You know I love you.
Donna