Lifestyle tips from a moderately hip and stylish mom for families who want to live a healthful, organized, and joyful life.
2011 is an introspective year for me. I’m really at a sort of crossroads in my life, a place where I have to decide how I want my life to be and make it happen. I started this process with my 30 by 30 list. I want to finish off my 20’s with a bang, but also some thought and deliberation. I don’t want to just go through the motions any more. I want to think about everything I do and whether it brings me closer to or farther from my goals.
At the start of the year I came to a realization that I’m not willing to waste any more of time doing things that make me miserable or just aren’t bringing me toward the kind of life want to live.
This week, as I drove to our family Passover Sedar, I heard Anne Lamott being interviewed on NPR about the meaning of Easter for her and the moment that this meaning changed for her. Here is what she said:
“When I was 38, my best friend, Pammy, died, and we went shopping about two weeks before she died, and she was in a wig and a wheelchair. I was buying a dress for this boyfriend I was trying to impress, and I bought a tighter, shorter dress than I was used to. And I said to her, ‘Do you think this makes my hips look big?’ and she said to me, so calmly, ‘Anne, you don’t have that kind of time.’ And I think Easter has been about the resonance of that simple statement; and that when I stop, when I go into contemplation and meditation, when I breathe again and do the sacred action of plopping and hanging my head and being done with my own agenda, I hear that, ‘You don’t have that kind of time,’ you have time only to cultivate presence and authenticity and service, praying against all odds to get your sense of humor back.” “That’s how it has changed for me. That was the day my life changed, when she said that to me.”
When I heard her say this it struck me so strongly that I haven’t been able to get it out of my head. I don’t believe that my life will be cut short by accident or illness, but I do believe that even a long life is short enough that I don’t want to waste any more of it.
Who’s with me? What are you going to stop wasting your life doing?
