Random Thoughts

What would you do if the universe suddenly handed you an EXTRA DAY? Extra days can be metaphorical – I mean, actual EXTRA DAYS are few and far between.   But if one landed in your lap – what would you do? I was thinking about this question today.   I was handed a literal EXTRA DAY by the universe, and it is today.   We were confused on what day our flight home from vacation was.   We had written down on the calendar for FRIDAY.   We had the right airline, right flight number and times, but put it on the wrong DATE.   And it wasn’t until the automated email from the airline popped in on WEDNESDAY night urging us to check-in for our upcoming flight that we realized the mistake…   After over an hour on hold with the airline chat system (and the same amount of time with the airline phone recording playing the same hold music over and over…) – we finally got a chat agent who graciously moved our flight (with no change fee!) to the day we mistakenly th...

As an interpreter, I think about language a lot – about WORDS.   And the phrase I have been pondering for about a week is this:   ONCE IN A LIFETIME. People often use it to describe big, grand, amazing things.   ·          “Visiting the Grand Canyon – oh, that is a once in a lifetime experience!” ·          “Skydiving?   A total once in a lifetime experience!”   ·          “Front row tickets to a Lady Gaga concert?   Once in a lifetime, man!” ·          “A trip to Iceland to see the Northern Lights – wow, a once in a lifetime experience!!” The use of that phrase relating to positive events like those rubs me the wrong way.   Because here is the thing – if you invest your money and time in an experience or event, and it is fabulous and you love it – THEN DO IT AGAIN !!!!   Jumping ...

What would you do if tomorrow was your last day… Your very last .  And you knew it. Would you lie in bed and cry?  Hug all of your family members?  Take a walk on the beach?  Eat a huge steak? I can bet I know some things you wouldn’t do…  Wouldn’t check your work email.  Wouldn’t clean the bathtub.  Wouldn’t watch a mindless tv show… It sounds hypothetical.  But it’s not.  One day, tomorrow will be your last day.  I guess if you are lucky you might know that in advance.  And knowing would allow you to make conscious choices about how to use those last few moments of time. But most of us won’t know when our time is almost up.  The end may just sneak up on us.  Or maybe death will be long and dragged out, leaving us in bed unable to make choices. So, here’s an idea.  What IF…  What if we lived each day as if tomorrow was our last??  What if we made decisions each day on how to sp...

We all have our “thinking spaces”.   For some it is in nature.   For my sweetheart it is in the shower.   For me, it’s taking walks.   And I just got back from a long one, which means I have had some thinking time. Today I thought about death.   It’s not a new topic to me, in fact my brain sometimes jumps to it even when I wish it wouldn’t, and I have to squeeze my eyes shut and wish the thoughts away.   But today I allowed them to stay, tried to “welcome” them, as much as one can welcome thoughts of death. And I began thinking about things I might MISS after I die.   My rational brain quickly jumped in to correct my day dreaming – “You can’t MISS anything after you are dead,” it correctly asserted.   Alright then, if I won’t actually MISS them in the sense that I currently understand missing , what things might I be sad or disappointed I could no longer experience (yes, I know that sadness and disappointment won’t be emotions avail...

I don’t believe in “bucket lists”.  This may surprise people.  From the outside, to some people it may seem as if I live my life running around checking item after item off my “bucket list”.  ·          Fly in a helicopter – check ·          Go to a presidential inauguration – check ·          Float in the Dead Sea  - check ·          Yada ·          Yada ·          Yada But I do not do those things to COMPLETE them.  I don’t do them to check them off, to finish them before I die. I do them because I am ALIVE.  I do them because they are opportunities, events, ideas that present themselves, and I grab them.  I relish them.  I take time to enjoy them. Don’t get me wrong – I love lis...