ON FAMILY ~ Seize The Day...

At the age of 45, writer Regina Brett wrote a column for the Cleveland Plain Dealer listing 45 lessons that life had taught her thus far. As a breast cancer survivor, many of those lessons were learned the hard way. Five years later she added five more lessons rounding her list up to 50 and turned her popular list into a book called God Never Blinks. I found her list to be entertaining, inspiring and thought provoking. I thought I would go through each of her lessons learned and write about how that lesson has or has not come up in my own life, now that I am over 40 and feel old enough to have finally learned something.

"No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up for life."

~ LESSON #46

Gah. I am the world's laziest Bumble. Even when I feel terrific, I would generally opt for sleeping in, lounging on the couch in my PJ's and staying at home ordering delivery. To me, that's a perfectly acceptable way to pass the day. Of course, that is exactly what it is. Passing the day away. Not seizing the day.

My co-worker seizes the day. She runs the Boston Marathon every year. She runs "fun" runs on the weekends. She goes to the gym, boxing classes, track training. She's nuts. But she gets up, looks great and gets there, even when she'd rather hang at home catching up on her DVR.

Andy seizes the day. The man never misses a day of work. And every morning, he gets up to give Tedy the cat his medicine and breakfast, comes back to bed for a catnap of his own, and then gets up again to feed Sammy while I roust myself. Then he goes to work. Or, if its a weekend, just hangs with the boy. He never sleeps in. On Father's Day I insisted on taking care of the morning round of feedings, and he still got up shortly after they were done. He may not always "dress up" but he gets dressed and takes on the world when I know he'd rather take a nap.

I try to seize the day now most of the time. Sammy gives me no alternative. See that mischievous little guy up above? That's what happens when he gets bored. My job is to make sure he learns something every day. Maybe not something new. But building upon newer skills. Refining. He can't learn anything if I'm in my PJ's watching game shows. Well, I suppose he could learn price points from The Price Is Right. But lets focus on saying Ma-Ma first. Most days we have a plan. Some place to be. And so I get up, get dressed and get there. But every now and then, we don't have anything to do. I elect to skip the shower. Stay in my PJ's. Keep on the glasses instead of swapping out for my contacts. Play inside all day instead of going for a walk so the world won't see my grimy, lazy self. And wouldn't you know, the one day I skip the effort, the UPS guy shows up needing me to sign for my neighbor's package?

It turns out, my son is teaching me a lesson here. By tugging on that damn activity box on his crib rail every morning and waking me to the Itsy Bitsy Spider tune over and over and over again at the crack of dawn, he forces me to get up, get dressed and show up to wherever it is we need to be, regardless of whether I'm in an "under-the-covers-watching-soaps" or "I-can't-believe-how-beautiful-the-weather-is" kind of mood. Who knew even lazy summer days need motivation to get kick-started?