Tonight my husband and I were talking about things that needed to get done around the house – you know, screens to be fixed, front porch to be painted, fan and light installations in the bathroom – nothing major. Yet the usual excuses about cost or lack of time sprung up…in the end we dropped the subject and went onto our separate chores. And I thought back to our early years – we didn’t have excess cash then either – and our time had its limits, different of course, as we didn’t have kids – but still – it had its limits. Then that proverbial bolt from the blue hit me…the real difference between 23 years ago and today is that finding the possibilities, rather than the excuses was more the challenge. There was more dreaming up of ways to complete projects than excuses of why we couldn’t. One of us thinks the hole in the screen is big (big enough for several mosquitoes to fly in) the other says “that tiny thing?” Guess which one is expecting to work on it? I suddenly felt older tonight – and not in the the good wise way – just the tired way.
I think the secret to staying young is to always consider the possibilities, to brainstorm, to dream. You lean towards feeling rejuvenated instead of beaten down and tired…which in itself, gets old, by the way.
