Stride?

Life does have interesting tides or turns that often take us by surprise or send us into the ‘blahs’. One of the lessons my mom taught me wasn’t to allow circumstances to overwhelm me or stop me from living. She would always tell me to get up, stop doing a pity party and go for it. I face circumstances often that can be rather frustrating or maddening because of other’s choices that impact my life and the lives of those around me that I care about.

I had an incredible weekend celebrating the lives of my parents who both are deceased as we enjoyed the Ft. Rosecrans National Cemetery in Point Loma. I’m so thankful to have been able to have their remains placed in this historic location. My dad passed a year ago and I’m still learning how to take his departure in stride. I will have little things around me that remind of him in his last year of life. These are all totally silly because he was mentally not capable of much besides smiling, saying thanks and in a very incredible way saying I love you.

It was through both my parent’s journey towards the end of their lives that I’m learning more about what’s really important in life. So often we allow little distractions, which mean next to nothing to rob us of our joy and peace. I was away over the weekend and had a few distractions that came close to robbing me of my special time with family and remembering my mom and dad.

It isn’t easy to put life circumstances into perspective where we aren’t running from crisis to crisis. Last night as we are driving in our little van on our way to walk our dogs my wife screeches out at me to pull over and call 911. I had no clue what she was talking about until I pulled into the middle lane and stopped and realized there was this old house being totally engulfed in flames. I quickly dialed 911 and relayed the info. I could tell that my Anne was close to tears about the family and whether or not there were any animals trapped in the house or in the backyard.

Fortunately the fire trucks, policemen and ambulances rushed to the scene and literally within minutes the fire had been contained. We still are not sure of what really happened or whether someone was actually hurt in the blaze that destroyed the house. I had something similar to this happen over the weekend to me. It was scary to think that someone could do something really foolish, destroy property of another and then really believe that pretending nothing happened or you could escape would fix everything as if nothing actually happened.

I’ll be honest that I don’t relish having to deal with the details of catastrophes. Yet, at some point you have to call the police, insurance companies or talk about what really happened instead of saying I can’t talk to anyone because they are going to scream at me. It isn’t easy at times to not go ballistic and want to get even or hurt someone. Yet, the voice of my mom is ringing in the background telling me to calm down and realize that nothing is more important than our safety and in the bigger scheme of life possessions don’t matter. Yes, life is so much the most incredible gift from God and not my play toys!

Yes, it’s time to learn to be better at pacing oneself and learning that taking life’s ups and downs in stride is so much healthier than going off on someone or considering doing something that will get you in trouble!