Route 66

-

 My daughter said something to me yesterday that has stayed with me. It was a compliment, but it was more than that, it was a revelation. She said (and I'll quote/copy her text exactly), "I love that you are getting even more easy going as you get older, most people get uptight 😂😂😂."

This comment was in response to my reaction to a picture she had texted me. Her dog Lucy and just come in from doing her outdoor business and left muddy paw marks all over the kitchen floor. My response...."It happens." 

The small stuff just doesn't matter anymore. (Is this the wisdom they talk about?) When my now adult kids share their annoyances, I try to minimize their small stuff too in an effort to save them some time. 

Tomorrow is my birthday and at sixty-six, I finally learned that most of it is small stuff. Would I like to go back in time and have a few opportunities for a re-do? I sure would! I regret all that energy wasted on things that just didn't matter. Unfortunately, it doesn't work that way, does it? 

As I travel this next year on Route 66, I'll count my blessings more than ever and try to stay easy going no matter what life brings me. There's no time to waste, I know that now.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What about my Brooklyn accent?

-
Truth is, I never knew I had a Brooklyn accent. Growing up in Dyker Heights, Brooklyn, my friends’ grandparents who had emigrated from countries like Italy, Syria, Greece and Lebanon had the accents, not me. I first “felt” my accent when I was a doctoral student at the University of Buffalo. I was enrolled in molecular biology; a challenging class that introduced me to the emerging science of cloning and gene expression. I asked a lot of questions.  For the first time in my life I felt self-conscious about my accent. Maybe it was the smirk on my professor’s face or the stares of my smug classmates who were mostly from Long Island. Looking back now, I often think, they were from Long Island, what the hell did they have to be so smug about?  Despite my Brooklyn accent, I successfully completed the class. One of the Long Islanders commended me on my performance, however, the complement was short lived because he followed it by saying he was surprised I did so well. Apparently, my thick Br
Read more

That Lasagna

-
If you ask any adult who was a chubby kid if they have a memory of being put on their first diet, most will answer yes and many will say it’s a bad memory they would rather forget.  I certainly didn’t forget, but it wasn't all that bad. There are as many diets as there are bathroom scales. Even if you’ve never dieted, never snacked on celery sticks in lieu of potato chips or never called one of those 1-800 numbers looking for a magic pill; I’m sure you’ve heard of Weight Watchers.  Weight Watchers was my first diet. It was 1969. I was in eighth grade. I don’t remember what I weighed or maybe I just erased it from my memory along with my poor conduct grades. I do know that I weighed significantly more than my classmates. When the girls would discuss their weights, I would just lie. But I wasn’t stupid. I assessed where I fell on the weight continuum between the skinny and chubby girls and bent the truth by a few pounds. Truth is, I wasn’t unhappy with how I looked, I just didn’t lik
Read more

My Birthday Party

-
     Having recently celebrated a birthday, memories of past birthdays came to mind. Fortunately for me, as a young child growing up in my Brooklyn home, birthdays were mostly a family affair.  Instead of a party with my friends, I just had a “family party” and that was more than enough for me. Truth is, I wasn’t too crazy about going to my friends’ parties. I always found the games intimidating. Especially when they played two games that caused me a lot of anxiety, Pin the Tail on the Donkey and Musical Chairs.      Pin the Tail on the Donkey was a frightening and embarrassing pursuit. You know the game but let me bring it back to you. Picture a bunch of kids sequestered in a wood paneled basement festooned with crepe paper garlands hanging from the ceiling. An adult blindfolded you and spun you around until you were so dizzy you immediately regretted eating that second piece of birthday cake. They handed you a paper tail with a thumbtack stuck in it, which at this you
Read more