Procrastination

My friend Alice was a vivacious woman.  She always had a smile for me and was delighted by my stories of my grandkids.  Unexpectedly, she died last month.  Alice was a woman who always took care of others- her husband, her kids, her grandkids.  She thought she was invincible.  Not feeling well for a few days, she went to the doctor and was told she had a virus.  Plans to go to a cousin’s wedding were looming; plane tickets and hotel reservations had been made weeks before.  Alice thought like most of us- nothing bad will happen.  Unfortunately, she became very ill on the plane.  Although an ambulance was waiting for her when the plane landed, she died several hours later. 

Her story reaches deeply to my sole.  The lesson:  we don’t know what will happen tomorrow.  And if we want to make things a bit easier for our loved ones- again another caretaking role- we have to allocate time and energy now- not tomorrow. 

Taking time and energy now can also contribute to our own well-being.  Prepping meals for the week, shopping lists, to do lists and reading lists are several helpful ways to help us with the habit of “doing” and not just “thinking”.  I haven’t figured out the entire answer myself.  Yet the divide between thinking and doing can be massive.  Accountability comes into play here.  If I tell someone about my thoughts and commit to a timetable, will I be more inclined to actually take the steps to action?  I guess it depends on the situation.  How do you get yourself to do things that are not urgent?  How do you change the mindset from “I can do it tomorrow” to “I need to do it today”.  Please comment in the web version of this blog.

I have been thinking about labeling my photos and  artwork.  Just a sticky note on the back to tell my kids where it came from or why I bought it could be of interest to them.  And I need to do this now in the event my memory fails later. 

Perhaps enough talking and thinking…action is required now.