Good morning to you all! It’s another Monday morning and another chance for a fresh start with a new week of opportunity is stretching ahead. Last week was a pretty good one for me and I have been using these last few weeks of working part time to ponder over my life and think about what I love about it and what things I want to change. One of my goals for 2018 is to stop worrying about things and enjoy life more which is something I am definitely struggling with. Andrew is brilliant at being outwardly positive about the things I worry about (whether he really feels this inside I don’t know but he definitely helps me see things in a more positive light and focus on the good rather than the bad). Today’s quote has definitely got me thinking about our future and how we can create more opportunities for moments that take our breath away.
2017 definitely didn’t create many moments like this. It wasn’t a bad year, but just a pretty mundane one so now is clearly time to make some changes and improve that situation. I watch a number of family daily vloggers on youtube and many clearly feel the pressure to create as much amazing creative content as possible by constantly having trips away and special days out that make their videos interesting and fun for their viewers as well as for them. As much as I think this must be a wonderful and exhilarating way to live I also feel that it must be exhausting to be jumping from one fantastic surprise to another without having time to appreciate the dull and mundane in between.
I do feel that we have to experience bad years and tough times to enable us to really appreciate those moments that take our breath away. When we live like this it is then not always necessary for these special moments to actually be that unusual or incredible. What might seem fairly run of the mill to someone might be the best moment of someone else’s year and that’s what is so great about it. Moments to treasure are so very personal and you never really know when they might happen or what you might be doing when you create a memory that just completely takes your breath away. It might be a beautiful view, an unexpected hug from someone you love or a moment of pride when your child does something wonderful.
The only thing you need to be able to create these beautiful moments is time and the opportunity to appreciate what you have. All too often we spend our days rushing from one thing to another and don’t taking time out to appreciate that view or breathe in the fresh air. Sometimes we have to force ourselves to stop and take it in and create that opportunity for ourselves. I suppose the reason so many of our special memories are from our family holidays is because these are the times when we do actually stop and allow ourselves the time to enjoy life a bit more. The pressures of work and school are taken out of the equation and we can take stock and think about the things that are important.
I recently shared this post on my Facebook page from the beautiful Holly Butcher who died this year, on 4th January, of bone cancer at just 27 years old. Her words are so simple and straight forward and certainly struck a chord with me. Life is so very short and is here to be enjoyed. There isn’t time to have regrets. I’ve been stressing about our holiday we have booked for the Summer and, due to the amount it is going to cost, have considered cancelling it. However, reading Holly’s post completely changed my outlook and I am now focusing on ways to make sure we have enough money to go and to spend 2 weeks making the most amazing memories and special moments that we can remember for the rest of our lives.
Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take but by the moments that take our breath away
Maya Angelou
Leave a Reply