Planning Update (and Mundane Silliness)
The comments on my last post were REALLY interesting! I shared that trying to plan or do any vision exercises more than a year in advance makes me uneasy… and most people agreed with me! The comments ranged from “I don’t even know if I’ll be alive then” to fears about parent’s health, concerns about the direction our country is going, and Lisa mentioned that for the next 13-14 years she’ll be caring for her children, so there’s not a lot of extra “planning” to do. When I read that I felt a wave of envy. My daughter graduates from high school in 2027, and because of the six-year age gap between her and my son, it means that I’ll have spent twenty-four years taking care of my kids… and I don’t want it to end. Even with all the irritations, arguments, disruptions of my own schedule, and general difficulties of living with young children (and tweens and teens!) I’ve actually loved it so much. And, I think there’s something comforting about knowing what your role will be for the next five, or ten, or twenty years. The fact that everything will shift in a little over a year is unsettling. I know! I’m not the first mom to feel this way. Most people dread the empty nest, and everyone manages to adjust. I will too, but I haven’t come to terms with it yet, and that’s a big reason why thinking too far in the future scares me. Let’s move on! Today (Friday) is my day in Miami (I took the day off work because my daughter is playing in an honor band festival at UM). After I drop her off, I plan to go for a run along the water. Then I’ll do a self-guided walking tour of a nearby neighborhood (Coconut Grove) and… I have a quest! A mug quest. Now that I drink loose leaf Rishi tea, the tea ball I like to use doesn’t fit in some of my favorite mugs. Here are a couple that are too narrow… I only have two mugs wide enough for my tea ball, and one of them is this one- -which I feel sends the wrong message to the universe. That leaves one mug, and I like to have variety.. BUT, I’m very picky about my mugs. With my new tea regimen, a mug needs to be wide. It also needs to hold plenty of tea (no 12 ounce mugs for me). The handle has to be comfortable for me to hold, and of course I have to like the way it looks. In addition to being on the lookout for a new mug, I’ll go to Books and Books (hooray! Another bookstore!) and also find a place to sit and read while I drink tea. The perfect day! Do you get attached to your mugs? Or do you not care what you drink out of? Top photo by Chris Scott on Unsplash