Over the Thanksgiving holiday, we spent some time in a nursing home with a loved one. A young man--about 20 years old--sat down at a nearby piano and struggled through a very bad rendition of As Time Goes By. I'm the only one who recognized the tune because it's a favorite.
I'm sure every day drags for the many people who live in that home. They sit in their wheel chairs or lay helplessly in their beds with nothing but memories to keep them company. Some don't even have their memories left.
I couldn't help but remember one of the lines in As Time Goes By:
"Moonlight and love songs never out of date, hearts full of passion, jealousy and hate ..."
I wonder if any of those old timers nurse regrets--remember things they should have done, could have done, meant to do. Or maybe something they shouldn't have done. Spending time with them, watching and listening has made me look back on this year.
2008 zoomed by for me. There are so many things I meant to do. I didn't accomplish much. Finished a novel, started a couple of new ones, was part of a conference committee, taught a class. I should have and could have done more.
Now it's time to start fresh, but in a sense, do it all over again. Life is repetition, isn't it?
Next year about this time, we'll be at this same point, won't we? Looking back.
Don't you love this video scene from Casablanca, and the music? It seems happy and sad at the same time.
As Time Goes By . . .
What's on your To Do List for 2009?
7 comments:
Jess,
How can you say you didn't accomplish much!? All those things you listed . . . I find that very impressive, and can only aspire to do as much next year myself. Pat yourself on the back, dear friend.
Angie, I'm too slow. And I'm a time-waster. I get an idea for an article and I just jot it down for another day when really, I should sit down and write it immediately--rewrite the following days, then market the next.
Procrastination is a killer. I can visualize myself in a nursing home one day remembering a bunch of wasted days when I just sat on the couch watching NCIS. :(
I often wonder that too, Jess. There's so much I want to accomplish and it seems like there's so little time to do everything. Then, needless to say, I become depressed and end up not doing the very things I want to do.
It's struggle but I preserver. I refuse to give up. And you don't either!
I haven't begun to outline my 2009 goals, but you're right in how 2008 just zipped by.
NCIS...I sure hope that's not a time waster...I love that show. :)
Jess,
The video was great! Its amazing with all of the technology and stuff associated with the movies of today, there's still that little something missing from them that's captured in the good, ole black and whites.
Monotony is a killer. I hate it. I crave change, I need movement, I want twelve things at once. I'm motivated but lack direction, self confidence, time.
I hear ya, I hear ya.
Procrastination is a killer too. And I do enough of that. Of all that I accomplished in 2008, I know that there was more that I shoulda, coulda, woulda done.
I haven't sketched my 2009 goals (saving it for the newsletter lol) but I want it all. I want to stop being afraid and just do it, create it, submit it, etc. My motto for 2009: No More Fear!
Thats all I know for now.
Mindy
It is what it is, this life of ours. I have become resolved to the fact I am where I am suppose to be. Things that slipped through the cracks wasn't meant to be. I loved that video. For a moment I was dancing with them not a care in the world, then the phone rang. You did everything God intended for you to do this year and you did Him proud.
As Time Goes By is one of my favorites, too.
I'm as guilty as anyone of procrastinating. It's one of the reasons I wish I could turn back the clock and give myself 90 days before Christmas. (During which time, I'd think, "Oh, I have plenty of time--I'll do that tomorrow.")
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