What you do for Yourself

I overhear friends at work...most of them younger than I, talking about their busy lives with kids of various ages all around them, schedules out the Waa Zoo, and I think back to the days when I relished being able to sit down and drink a hot cup of coffee without someone screaming"Where's Mine?"  Or read a book or a magazine, watch a television program or the news without being interrupted.

I have more of those times now than I used to.  My kids are grown and married and have kids of their own.   I remember older women telling me when my children were young toddlers running around with snotty noses and skinned knees..."Enjoy them while they are young...they grow up so fast", to which I would think..". Yep, but it can come none too fast for me!"

Don't get me wrong...in many ways I had the best of both worlds...I grew up with my kids and still have a penchant for the young at heart.  I don't think I ever wanted to grow up.

The frontal cortex of my brain still  had four more years to develop by the time I was done having my kids.  I was a late bloomer and was involved in things in a backward sort of way.
When I look back over my posts it seems there is a lot of uncertainty and flux.  That's because if there was a challenge or an opportunity we were ready for it.  I remember when we were trying to decide many years ago if we should make a move from Virginia to Ohio we determined that there was nothing that was going to be so difficult that we could not turn around and go back if it didn't turn out like we thought it would.  Funny thing...we never seemed to be the same people and like the same things even if they were familiar, if we went back.  Somehow, we had changed and so had everyone else.  I still like the South and I still like the ocean though...and someday I'd like to go back there.

I've been trying to see the good things in the challenges I meet.  I don't always make it through to that frame of mind but if I can look at it as something I can learn from, enjoy, or appreciate then it doesn't seem so bad even if it is truly difficult.
Challenges come in many costumes.  Sometimes they leave us speechless and bewildered but I can see the beauty of things gone before now.  The" whys" and "so what's" of history and of those who tell us about the things to come. I'm learning to appreciate the experiences that I used to take for granted and savor some of the little things I didn't have time for when I was younger. Well, sometimes.

But I am learning to embrace what comes with time and age.  To appreciate that it is okay to do some things for yourself after giving and giving to others.  I still feel guilty when I paint my fingernails or buy something new.  I even feel guilty for going to work out...even though there is nothing or no one calling me or texting me and asking, "Where are you?"  As a young mother, there never seemed to be enough time...now there is time but I find that I can procrastinate and excuse away why I should be doing things to keep my body healthy and strong.

 So...I'm asking, What have you done for yourself lately? Can you afford not to take care of this body you've been given to live in?  If you don't who will?  Easy to say, hard to do.
I didn't take the conventional road, and sometimes I look back and regret not having taken the most traveled road but my journey has been full of unexpected experiences that have given me a perspective that many never have.  Some one told me recently that it important to take care of the investment you've made in your life by taking care of yourself.  I think those are wise words.