Question: If you died tonight, what would you regret not having done today? What do you have on your "Wish List" that you wanted to do and haven't?Here are some of my wishes...I wish I could do something meaningful for someone that would change their life for the better; I wish I could see my Utah family every day if that's what I wanted to do; I wish Joe could have a real relationship with his sons and know true love from them; I wish that I could understand how a computer works; I wish I could build a dream house somewhere overlooking a beautiful lake in the mountains; I wish I could have lunch with Thomas S. Monson and bring Corey along with me; I wish I could be more spontaneous without restriction of cost or time; I wish I could be an ice cream taster at Ben & Jerry's and not gain one ounce of weight; I wish I could discover a hidden pyramid filled with the greatest artifacts ever discovered; I wish I had a personal trainer who came and got me every day and made me work out no matter what; I wish I had a personal chef who would cook for Joe and me every day; I wish I could sit and watch the sun rise and set every day; I wish I didn't have to go to work everyday just to earn a paycheck; I wish I had my ideal Mustang and could take it to an open track and see who fast it could go before I chickened out; I wish parents never got older, but rather stayed in a holding pattern of good health; I wish it was cool enough every night to sleep with the windows open and I didn't have to wear earplugs; I wish the dogs could stay spotlessly clean at all times; I wish I could stay up late every night and sleep in until I wanted to in the morning. But since that last wish is impossible, I've got to stop for now and go to bed. And, lest you think this is all I wish for, think again!Think about it...what would be on your "Wish List"?
I've always said that we go through phases in our lives - particularly women, I think. Mine were: childhood, teenaged years, college years and early jobs, my various career changes, marriage, motherhood, a single mother in midlife who went through divorce, another marriage, another career, becoming a grandmother, etc. Each life experience has left an indelible mark on my soul as well as a layer of memory. It's kind of like having a build up of sediment. Someone once wrote that "we think that it's the big moments that define our lives - the wedding, the baby, the new house, the dream job. But really, these big moments of happiness are just the punctuation marks of our personal sagas. The narrative is written every day in the small, the simple, and the common. In your tiny choices, in these tiny changes. In the unconsidered. The overlooked. The discarded. The reclaimed."Do you realize that there are only three ways to change how our life will go? That would be some type of crisis, chance or choice. My life at this exact moment is a direct result of choices I made somewhere in my life. That boggles my mind when I think about it. It was a family crisis that brought me to Shreveport, Louisiana, chance that Les lived next door and we were introduced and a choice that I made to marry him. Then once again, years later, it was a crisis (divorce), a chance meeting on the internet that caused Joe to find and woo me and my choice to marry him from all the men I met during that time. Would I do things differently if I knew then what I know now? Certainly not! I would not be where I am now without having had those experiences. I would not have you, Corey, I would not have Nikki or Derek. I would not have Joe. And, how empty my life would be without any or all of you. No matter how painful some memories may be, there were also wonderful memories that kept me alive or I wouldn't be here today. Someone once wrote "The past is not only that which happened, but also that which could have happened, but did not." Think about that.
