WEEKENDS WERE MADE FOR . . .

This is a lazy weekend . . . We thought we would be having company this weekend -- and were looking forward to that -- but it didn't happen, after all . . .

Funny how some weekends are a whirlwind of activity and some are very low key, very slow paced . . . I think I needed a slow weekend . . . We have had a LOT going on in the past few months . . . maybe even the past few years . . . Sometimes I think I am handling all of it really impressively well . . . and sometimes, I think I am not doing so hot . . .

I heard once that "Life is what happens while you are making other plans" . . . and I think that pretty well sums things up . . .

Oh, don't get me wrong . . . PLANNING is good . . . Having GOALS to work towards is VERY good . . . but in the midst of those, most of us experience detours and roadblocks along the way that we didn't see coming . . .

Sometimes those are the result of our own poor planning . . . We thought that we wanted an end result, only to discover along the way that there was more work involved, a higher cost to that result than we were willing to invest . . . Kind of like someone wanting to learn to play a musical instrument until they realize it takes hours and hours of tedious, daily practice . . . or wanting to be a marathon runner or a size 2, and discovering how much sustained dedication and sacrifice and WORK those goals each take . . .

Oh, sometimes we can find shortcuts . . . or at least we THINK we have found shortcuts . . . but almost always, in the long run, short cuts in life are not much long-term help at all . . . and sometimes even derail the very plans they are meant to assist . . .

The older I get, the more suspicious and leery I am of shortcuts . . . For instance, I would REALLY rather not be operated on by a doctor who took shortcuts in medical school . . . I would rather not be in a plane flown by someone who skimmed through pilot school . . . Like a little kid trying to get out of cleaning the room, who spends hours and hours in elaborate plots to hide toys under drawers and under the beds and in nooks and crannies in the closets . . . being too focused on getting 'there' (wherever 'there' happens to be for you) quicker rarely seems to actually work . . . Oh, short term, sure . . . There are ALWAYS shortcuts available for those on the lookout for them . . .

But long term . . . ? On things that really matter . . . ?

I don't think so . . . no . . .

There are no shortcuts to developing a good, solid and lastingly satisfying relationship . . . there is no 'speed reading' course for being a good, nurturing parent . . . There is no real shortcut to developing one's talents and abilities . . . and the applause of those you can fool, is hollow satisfaction after the first flush of excitement . . .

MOST things worth having in life . . . simply take TIME . . . SUSTAINED time invested over the long haul . . .They have to be a priority . . . not something you work in to the cracks of what you spend most of your time doing . . .

So . . . maybe a long, quiet weekend spent evaluating where I am headed and what it is I want in the years ahead is NOT a lazy way to spend a couple of days, but instead precious time spent in valuable self contemplation . . .

Something to think about . . . huh . . . ?