Sunday, July 21, 2013

Article #253 Not Knowing


             No one knows what the future will hold. You could be struck by lightning while standing outside your front door or hit by a texting driver during your morning walk or have a sudden heart attack in your sleep. There is not a detailed road map for each person’s life. With only a general outline in mind, you are in charge of determining how you react to what happens and goals that you make. This NOT KNOWING situation should/could motivate you to make a life plan. That’s the part that you can control. Making goals can guide you to live a more productive life.
            If you are retired, you’ve probably looked forward to this time for many years, but without careful planning (a road map/goals to follow), it won’t happen. You have to make sure you invest or save money towards this time of your life plus take good care of your physical health. My husband always wanted to find a retirement homestead: 5-10 acres out of the city in a rural area with irrigation water rights, room to garden and plant an orchard, and become self sustaining. Instead, he ended up living in the city of St. George to keep his wife happy. End of story?
            No, the dream persists and the opportunity may present itself to buy some land where he can accomplish his dream of homesteading part of the year. He could become one of those lucky SNOWBIRDS who live in St. George during our pleasant winters and somewhere else during our hot sizzling summers when few want to be living here. Sometimes dreams have to be COMPROMISED to keep each partner happy and still achieve the goals or destinations you both had in mind. Synergy!
            Another friend of mine is always saying, I know there is some disease out there with my name on it. Well, that kind of thinking does you absolutely no good. None of us knows how or when we will leave this life. I’m sure my healthy twenty-nine year old father was shocked when he suddenly departed this life as the result of an airplane accident. The point is to PLAN as though you’ll live forever and hold fast to your DREAMS. They can guide you to happiness even if you don’t know how long you’ll live. Find your passion in life and pursue it with enthusiasm. You only have one go at this journey called "life." NEXT TIME: Brainwashing or Teaching.

4 comments:

  1. Taking ownership of what we can control and choose what we'd like to do....yes.

    Thanks, Lin!

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  2. Hi Lin...I have not checked your blog in ages! Just reading this one post was inspiring and motivating. It is interesting how dreams will well up inside of you and come forth at the proper time like a flower, then a ripe fruit, if it is nourished. I am a"country mouse" living in a big city
    but have a huge pumpkin garden that thrills me to no end. Dreams?I would like to grow huckleberries some day. And build an old fashioned teeter totter in the backyard...and get so familiar with the scriptures I would instantly know where to find something-(
    anything!) in them!

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  3. Life is beautiful. Whether we like it or not!

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  4. What a coincidence that I actually wrote something about this when I mentioned the sermon our Buddhist priest gave for Obon.

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