Goal setting

We don't do enough of it; we certainly don't think enough about the lives we lead. In other words, setting goals and plans for the future.  That is why, just before my own New Year, as the school year is to me, I sit down, and think through where I want to be in a year, three years and even five or ten years.  I haven't dared to this for ages; too frightened to think about the next treatment but as I have only a year to go before my 'five years' is up, I am eagerly peering around the door, trying to peek into the next room, the next year.  I have been on hold over the last 4 years.  I have dreams, plans for the future, and am only just starting to unpack the attic box of the future, dusting off hopes and fears that I had almost forgotten I had.  An extension for the house perhaps, painting the inside, writing a 'proper' book, thinking about the next career move.

How much we take the future for granted.  How much we assume that we will be around to 'direct' what is ahead of us, that the next career step is precisely that, and we don't spend any time on the possible chasm that may open up in between.  We take the future as a given.   We take our health, and the health and presence of those closest to us utterly for granted.  We probably have to in that if we did think about the potential dangers of all that we do, we would quit in horror; throw our hands up in the air and put up the white flag immediately. After all, the boyfriend could be in a car crash tomorrow, the daughter might get skin cancer from being in the garden, and I could trip down the stairs and break my neck tonight.  Already, I am scared stiff and I am still at the computer writing.

But it is worth the time to consider the risks of everyday life, to understand how lucky we are that we are able to plan for next year, or even three years after that without having the shadow of the present fog our future.

Enjoy the planning, the goal setting and the dreams, but don't forget to give thanks for our present.

Minerva

Holidays

During Cancer we couldn't have holidays.  As I was on half pay, and hadn't met the man in my life yet, we were only reliant on my salary, and as I have three children, I didn't have the financial resources, or the energy to go anywhere.  We stayed in London working on the house, moseying around reading books, and the girls would arrange to go and see their friends, and have friends back to the house as well.
Having just come back from two weeks in the sun, I have vowed that should I be in the same circumstances again, I will never forgo the holiday.  I may go and stay with a friend, or house sit, or beg a couple of rooms somewhere but I will go away.
The foreigness of somewhere else, the soul, body and mind needs the refreshment of change, I think.  I feel revitalised, that work, the house, the clamouring voices of the washing, ironing, cleaning have all been left behind.  To have the sheer luxury to lie, cream coated, on a sun lounger to read for nearly two weeks has been incredible.
And it is always so lovely to come in through the front door, and recognise the value of home.

How lucky we are...

Minerva