Carpe Diem

This week came news from our Provincial government that strict Covid-19 social distancing measures may remain in place through the summer, and I just shrugged.

Our sons’ University Convocation, and celebratory family BBQ, is scheduled for mid-June. Hubs and I celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary in August; we booked a family trip to see Garth Brooks in Vegas. I haven’t seen my mother and friends since my birthday in January, or my elder children and grandson, or any other extended family, since February or earlier. And I just shrugged.

Truth is, our family’s been on the receiving end of bad news consistently since March 2019. Divorces, near-fatal aneurysms, terminal diseases and other life and body-altering medical diagnoses, sudden deaths, break-ins–earth quakes? … It’s been relentless, and I’m emotionally wrung out. I’ve no energy to resist, or rail against the hurt and loss, anymore. Moving forward is the only option now.

Part of moving forward, is accepting the things I can’t change, and postponing the events and plans I can. It’s also reactivating plans and dreams abandoned to grapple with the fallout of emotional, personal, and physical upsets the last year has wrought on our family.

English Pointer (hunter dog) on the meadow

One of the dreams we decided this week to pick up from where we dropped it, is our want for a dog. And to be precise, an English Pointer. So yesterday, I reached out to a couple of people I believe might be able to help us realize that dream.

I don’t know how long it will take to find and eventually bring home our new family member, but I do know that when he or she arrives, it will be to a grateful household excited to welcome a writhing bundle of love, and energy.

Time is finite, friends, and life short. We don’t know what tomorrow holds, but we can act on realistic dreams today.

Stay home, stay safe. Stay well. And while you’re at it, take a moment to consider what you’ve been postponing until the “perfect” or a “better” time, and ask yourself if delay is truly necessary.

Later, isn’t always a better time for some things. And some things absolutely need to wait until later, when the world is a safer and more stable place to venture around in. But, if there’s something you’ve wanted or dreamed of and you can make it happen now without physical or financial harm to you and or yours, what’s stopping you?

Grab that easel. Write that first sentence. Welcome that new furry friend.

Carpe diem, my friends. It’s all we ever have for sure.

Deborah

You don’t get to choose how you’re going to die. Or when. You can only decide how you’re going to live.

~Joan Baez

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