With Awareness Comes Choice

My mother used to always say "I'm not rushing, I just move fast."  That woman could do more, know more, live more and love more in any given day than ANYONE I have ever known.  Period.  End of story.  I know I'm biased, but it is true.  Since we spent quite a bit of time together, I was able to witness the number of ways this could play out on any given day.  I would watch her prepare the most wonderful breakfast, say soft-crabs and scrambled eggs, sit with the two or ten of us there, be entirely present enjoying the meal and conversation and before we could even clear the dishes, she was asking what we wanted for dinner.  I used to stop her and say "Mom, slow down...enjoy the moment," and she would look up at me, continue to do whatever she was into next ( making strawberry daiquiris for the day....for twenty!) and say "I'm not rushing Pamela, I just move fast."  Each time this happened, I experienced  a combination of admiration and contemp...

More later....get it?  That's for you Sean Casey.  Seriously though, more later.

There is a reason that one of my favorite quotes is "Life's too serious to be taken seriously."  Because it is.  Unfortunately, and despite the fact that I have it front and center on my Facebook profile page, I had forgotten this for a while.  The good news is that I recently remembered this little fact and oh the joys of living once this resonates within. For those of us who have experienced a significant loss in our lives or dealt with extended periods of grief and suffering, the heavy heart or burden of seriousness has been a constant companion--or not.  Despite the number and magnitude of "growth" opportunities that have come my way, I made it through those difficult years pretty well and somehow never really did lose my sense of humor or perspective on life.  In fact, it was during those most difficult times that I somehow drew strength from it and adopted the above quote as well as "when life hands you lemons, make lemonade (or margaritas)" as ...