My world was something like a storm that blew my house down, only a couple of years ago. Through illness I had to walk from my career, business and the people that I loved, my clients. Three years ago I was living a different life then I am today. My world was a schedule, a race, making money was my goal in life. I was living a life out of my means, I was going on, up to three trips a year and working to pay them off in-between. I am grateful for the memories, with no regrets but living three weeks of a year out of fifty-two weeks of a year, that’s not good but many people are doing it, I cannot believe I am the only one who lives like this.
I recently was sitting in my friend’s father’s funeral and a story was told from his daughter that explained to me how I was living. The story was a debate that the daughter was having about moving home and the difference in money. Her father gave her some insightful advice. It went something like this, “You can stay and live on a full sandwich or you can move home and be with your family and live on a half of a sandwich”
This was so powerful for me to hear because I was living on a full sandwich for a very long time. I am sorry to say that I missed out on birthday parties, swim lessons, and sometimes I showed up late for concerts and important moments in my child’s life. I missed out on family gatherings, special moments and everything in between. I may have missed out on important moments but we had all we needed in material things, that fifty dollar vase, new couch whenever we felt like it and lots of money to not think, just buy and give away the perfectly good item because it don’t match the décor anymore. You must know people like this, people who have all the toppings on their sandwich and if it brings happiness it’s all good, who am I to judge, I was that person as well until my body said, enough is enough.
Today my world is different we are learning to live on a half of a sandwich, I am here celebrating every moment with my family, the good and the bad. It’s not always easy but instead of a one-hundred & fifty dollar dinner, we choose a walk by the ocean, a hike and we cook a fabulous meal together. I can say yes to my friends and family now, before they stopped asking me, assuming I was working.
I have noticed since I am living differently that I appreciate more, I dispose less. I have learned to think about other people’s needs more, it’s been a journey of wonderful awareness. I actually am starting to get excited when I do make a purchase, for a period of time in my life, nothing was beautiful or exciting. A scary feeling to only be existing in this beautiful world waiting for my turn to live life.
Shine Bright, Live Simple, Love Yourself and Be True to You!
I was telling my friend the other day the story of, when we first bought our house and we had very little money, sometimes we had to go three days without milk and not a dollar for bread but I loved beautiful things and I was building a cozy home. So this one day I picked beautiful daisy’s from the side of the road and I put them perfectly in a mason jar for my table. I still remember the feeling but I also remember the feeling of being made fun of, for picking weeds. My goal became to work hard and never to pick weeds again. How sad to feel this way and listen to the opinions of others, I believe even the weeds should get a chance to shine and some of them are beautiful and this year I may pick some and fill a mason jar. I have learned it’s the inexpensive things that fill our heart with joy, love and peace. The material things will momentarily and fatten our credit card bills, and we tend to believe it will show the world that we are successful, but really, think about this. I believe we need to come back down to a half sandwich and start living a simple life and celebrate with our loves ones, be real. Enjoy being creative, active, playing with your loved ones with lots of laughter and do travel and see the world, it’s amazing land we live on.
Angela