Do you LOVE IT?

One of the primary lessons to be learned, to remember every day - all day, is this:


Do what you love.





My friend lived that way, especially so, in her last two years. So there is no reason that the rest of us should have to have a "wake-up call" to follow through. Of course, we know this. Of course, we know we should do what we love. I'm not inventing the wheel here.





But why then do we not?





I happen to be a person who doesn't place house-cleaning high on my priority list in life. I schedule parties and gatherings, so that every so often "we have to get it clean." Otherwise, we do what we have time for, and what we want to do. Sarah (Her husband gave me permission to use her name...) and I had this in common. As a matter of fact, I went into her house last week after sharing precious time with her two kids at our house, and not only did it not feel right to bring them home and have her not be there, but her house was too clean! Her mother-in-law, who is an amazing and wonderful person - Sarah loved and appreciated her very dearly- had cleaned.





So, I'm sure cleaning up a little was what Sarah's Mother-In-Law chose to do, because perhaps, she really wanted to; maybe she even loves doing it. I do not, in any way, mean to disrespect her. It's just that it was another of many reminders that my friend is physically gone from me.





Back to the point. I intend to take my wake-up call seriously. No, thankfully, I don't have one single health problem, but I'm not going to wait for one, either.





I love being with my daughters and my husband, digging in the dirt, dancing, laughing to the point of needing the Depends, my many, many friends, riding my bike really far, the woods, oceans, cities, farms, travelling, meeting new people who are nice and fun, doing things for other folks, making big changes, singing in my community choir, teaching, good food, tons of flowers ......I can't begin to think of an end to this list.





My plan is to always be doing what I love. If somehow I'm not loving something, and I can't or don't want to learn to love it, if it's not positive and beautiful, I'm not doing it. I can just hear the responses from the nay-sayers: "Sometimes people HAVE to do things they don't love, blah, blah, blah..."





I know this. There are plenty of things I don't love too. I just mean, this is my goal. This is what drives me. I am extremely lucky to live the life I do. I have food, shelter, love coming from 500 different directions, many luxuries, etc. I just don't intend to waste one day of the gift of my beautiful life, albeit in a messy house.





Now it's back to "sewing" (more like rigging up) costumes for my kids' neighborhood play - very swirly chiffon and sequined get-ups for an interlude dance to "It's Hairspray!"
This, I love!