The World's Common Tater

Last week started with a text from my brother asking me if I had heard about the death of someone from our high school. She was from his class. Two years older than me. She was married to a friend of mine from my class. She died suddenly during the night. I can’t imagine what her family is going through right now,  I had lost touch with them over the years. I had not seen them since I graduated from high school. We were friends on Facebook so I saw periodic updates on their lives. I didn’t really know them anymore, but it was still a sad way to start the week.

That week also was the week I was listening to the top 1000 country songs on a station on Sirius. I had been trying to time it to finally hear the top songs. I finally got there on my Friday hermit day. The top song, in case you were wondering, was Friends in Low Places by Garth Brooks. During my week of listening, I also heard songs like If Tomorrow Never Comes and Live Like You Were Dying. Those songs coupled with the news from above made me think about how I live my life. Here are some things to think about:

Have you told the people in your life that you love them? I’m bad at this one. I always feel weird about it. I guess I’m too macho or something(ha). I need to work on that. Now, I’m still not going to say the words I love you to my friends. That seems way awkward, but I do feel like I need to tell some of them how important they are and have been in my life. Some of them have been the only light in some of my dark days, They should know that. So, I need to work on making sure people know they are loved.

If how you spend your days steals your joy why are you still there? I’m working on this one. I plan to get out of my situation soon, but I also need to make sure I’m not just jumping into another bad situation. That’s what got me where I am today. No one should spend their life doing something or spending time with people who make them miserable.

Are you stealing other people’s joy? I need to make sure that the fact that I’m struggling is not affecting other people. I don’t want to be the reason other people are unhappy. Spread joy if you can.

Are your priorities in order? Are you going to think “I wish I had made a little more money or worked a little more.” when you are dying? Most likely not. Work. Make money. But don’t put it ahead of everything else. I’m doing pretty good with this one. I would quit working today and spend my time volunteering and doing mission work if  I could.  I don’t define myself by my job or my bank account.

Are you having fun? Another failure for me. I spend my days miserable. The toxic environment exhausts me and all I want to do is go home and veg out in front of the TV. I need to get out more and have more fun. Take some day trips on my days off. Go to the movies. Have some fun.

So, that’s where my mind had been lately. Trying to start living like I’m dying.