Mike and I slept through the ringing in of the New Year. We might have made it if midnight was really more like 8:00 p.m. Yesterday had been a long day and when the phone awoke both of us at 4 in the morning, it was hard to get back to sleep. So it was no wonder that both of us called it a night and fell fast asleep long before any festivities would have begun. We hope all of you, our dear friends and family out there, had a safe evening and are now fast asleep in the warmth of your beds. Happy New Year 2015. If you are reading this then God has blessed you with another year to be alive in. Rejoice and be so very thankful.
Back in August of what is now last year, I developed this list called "Peggy's list of 60 things to do before turning 60". It was conceived for a couple of reasons, one of which was the reminder I received of the brevity of life when my own father passed away at the same age I am now of 59. The other, well the other was this some times vain character trait I have of becoming older. Much older. I didn't want to spend the next 12 months waiting on a birthday that I would not enjoy. So rather than to dread hitting the "big 6-0", I made the choice to embrace the coming year with open arms that said "Well hello 60 years old! I have been waiting all of my life to see you!" Hey, it works.
Yesterday Mike printed off the original list, one that I will now keep on the refrigerator here at home as a reminder of the things yet to come. It's great this morning on this first day of the new year to sit down and cross off the ones that I have already done. Two of them, numbers 5 and 8, are already works in process. I've shared 4 books with people that I have read and then passed on to them to enjoy (#5). They in turn will read them and give them to another person. I've definitely been documenting the most beautiful sunrises and sunsets each month, a habit that I got into several years back (#8). Discovering "the secret to life" was accomplished basically on the day after we returned home from Kansas this week. That "secret" is to just keep living life, storing up the beautiful memories that you have made in your heart, and remembering where you came from and where you have been (#11). That one really wasn't all that hard to learn. I only thought it would be. I crossed off #15 in my journey back to Haven at Christmas time. I had wanted to go the city park in my hometown to visit with friends. That was accomplished when Mike and I, my sister-in-law Paula, my niece Jessica and her boyfriend David took a stroll there to see all of the improvements the city has made. We had another great Scott Family reunion at Christmas and I saw all of my siblings and many other family members there (#19). To get there we had to go over the big mountain in wintertime and even though we didn't stop to get out and breathe the fresh air, I did roll my window down to take a picture so I'm counting it as "done" (#24). We shopped at Gander Mountain, one of my favorite places in Wichita, and I bought something that wasn't on sale. $20 is more than I would normally pay for a head wrap but I got it anyway. My Thursday morning outdoor duty sometimes is a bit chilly and that North Face ear coverer is going to feel pretty nice (#34). And finally I decided that it was perfectly "ok" to buy more than $10 worth of tea bags at the Spice Merchant back in Wichita. I definitely threw "caution to the wind" and bought twice the amount that I normally do (#43). The weird thing about most of those tea bags is that I could buy the very same ones here in Montrose in several places around town but there is no place here that is like that much beloved store back in south central Kansas. It's the atmosphere. Totally the atmosphere. With 60 things on the list in all and only 8 accomplished so far, I've got a ways to go but I will get there. My birthday in late October is still 10 months away. I can do it.
I have been reminded not once but twice since Christmas vacation began of the brevity of this life that we all (me included) take for granted with each breath that we take. On the way back to Kansas on that first Saturday, I received a text from a friend in Haven that one of my classmates had passed away a few days earlier. Her 59th birthday was back in August of last year and it was the final one that she would be celebrating here on earth. When I stopped in for her visitation at the funeral home in Hutch, it was a somber reminder of just how quickly we can be gone from this life. Later on when we arrived back in Colorado, I learned that another woman, the teacher whose fourth grade classroom I took back in August of 2013, had passed away from cancer. She was so kind to me and I will always remember the way her hand felt in mine as she grabbed it that day when I first met her and she thanked me for being the one who would take her place at Olathe Elementary. No matter if we live a year or 100 of them, life is brief and it would seem right so to do that you would make every moment count for something good and positive. Wasting time is really no option for me now and with each day that passes, I get closer to the end. The truth is my friends, the same can be said for you.
As I look down the list of things that remain to do, the strange thing that I noticed is that so many of them don't require all that much money in order to accomplish them. They only require the time to do them. When I was coming up with the ideas for my list I really didn't even notice that "trend" and the weird thing is that I believe it was in the plan all along for it to be that way. One of my huge character defects is that I have never really taken all that much time for myself in life. I've always been too busy trying to "fix" people and things that were not really my responsibility to begin with. I could always manage to come up with the money to do things for myself but I could never manage to come up with the time. In the winter of my 60th year now, that has to change and change it will. I am worth it to myself and it seems a shame that it took me so long to figure that out but hey, at least I did before it was too late. My friends, you are worth it to yourselves as well. Please take time this year to do some of the special things that you've always wanted to. Go fishing more often and it doesn't matter if it's someone's pond or the the rivers of the Boundary Waters. For crying out loud, just do it! Have coffee with your friends more than once in a while. Shoot, why not have 3 cups of coffee instead of just one? Go ahead to spend a little money on something that you've always wanted but just never got around to buying. Money comes, money goes. Love your families and friends. Always remember the ones whom you have loved and keep them close in your heart. Having said all of that, I must admit that I am not your boss. Only bossy. Yet my advice is given with a sincere heart.
Little Crosby the Cat is asleep somewhere in this house. Her first few hours yesterday were not the best. She was so scared and it worried me that she would not come out to see us. It also worried me that she had no interest in her litter box and with dread I went to sleep last night thinking of it. The last words that Mike said to me before we fell fast asleep by 8:00 were that he hoped that she would figure out how to use it. So this morning, when I woke up at 3 to let Sally the Dog out for her nightly bathroom break, I decided to check it out and see if anything had happened. I turned the light on and sure enough she had figured it out. Kind of like the equivalent of potty training a little one and although yesterday was a little stressful, I am very glad that we got her. I believe she will love it here with us.
It's 5:15 in the a.m. here and I've had 3 cups of coffee and getting ready for the fourth one. The day lies ahead of us and even though none of us have an idea of what will happen to us, we go forth in faith. What else can you do? May your days ahead be ones filled with God's blessings. I'm alive and well here. My heart is full of friends, family, and very beautiful memories of the things that I have already seen and the ones that will be yet to come.
Obviously all of the height that my sister Sherry and I were supposed to have received was given to our cousin Gary. It was nice to see him once again.
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