The Simple Pleasures of Life

It's been awhile since I've sat down and wrote a blog.  It's not that I've haven't had anything to say, trust me I've got plenty to discuss.  But, I've been running like crazy with all the opportunities life has offered me over the last year and a half, and time continues to escape me.   Today however, seemed like a good day to sit down and write a blog, as it happens to be my mother's 99th birthday.  Crazy to think if she was still alive, she'd be 99.  She always seemed to me to be that 24 year old in the pictures we've so often seen in albums from the past, or the 50 year old who was riding her bike along Loraine Road.  Mom lived her life to the fullest, traveled the country in the RV with my dad and walked every day up until the day she had the fall that lead to her demise.  Mom was vibrant, active, loved a good dirty joke and a glass of Beefeaters and tonic!  My mom was the perfect example of how I want to be in these later stages of life.

Therefore I've been pondering my life, all that has happened in the last 10 years and all that will possibly be in the next 31.  I plan to live to be over 100 like my dear Aunt Barbara, and live the next 31 years with the gusto my mom seemed to live.  These last 10 years have been years of much change, ups and downs and now it's just the simple pleasures life has to offer.  Let's be honest, it helps to have a hilariously funny, sweet and oh so romantic boyfriend who also shares the same values as I do.  There are also a few good friends to enjoy these pleasures with, and an open mind to enjoy the moments.    But it's more than these things, it's having the heart and soul to embrace life for what is seems to be.

Life at this stage is built on moments.  I try to enjoy the moments as they happen and let's face it, at age 68 our moments are simply what we create.  I have built this stage of my life upon moments and I count my blessings for each one of them.  Life is what we make it, situations are what we make them, and frankly the negatives are simply passages in time.

As I look forward into 2024, I'm seeing multitudes of moments for travel, introspection and plenty of laughs and good times.  I have so much travel set up for this year, it's frankly crazy.  I've  had to weigh out what I can and can not do or afford and prioritize these travel moments.  Currently, I'm in the final planning stages for the European vacation we're taking in September.  My bucket list trip to Italy is finally going to happen and wait for it folks, we get to visit Pompei!!  Pompei has been a dream of mine since I was a kid and studied the Roman Empire.  Yes, I'll take tons of pictures and will share them on Facebook and Instagram.  We're also going to see the Swiss Alps and plenty of selfies will be shared of those moments in time.  

But moments are not just travel and places we visit.  Moments are those shared intimate discussions where we bare our hearts and souls.  Moments on the golf course or over a leisurely lunch seems to be the places where the we encounter these frank discussions about life or our varied journeys.  These moments are just seconds, although that bad shot in my golf game can cause me plenty of angst moments later on.    

So by now dear reader, you must be asking where is this blog is leading to?  Where it's landed is the now moment of today.  My message on Mom's 99th birthday is to enjoy your life, take each moment as they come and embrace the positives along with the negatives.  The negatives are learning experiences, put them in the past forgive and move on.   Travel your life's journey along the path of the unknown and enjoy the pleasures that you'll find.  Trust me, life is what you make it to be, enjoy!

"For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope."  ~ Jeremiah 29:11

Somewhere over the Caribbean 2024