Celebrate the Small Victories

As I sit and type this post, our daughter has been asleep for 50 minutes in her crib. The title of this post was easy to write. And as Dave is (at long last) staining the bathroom door, it only reinforced the thoughts of the title.

But as I thought about how happy I was that the door was getting stained, I stopped to think about if it was really that important. Like, if I found myself in a situation like Jai Pausch, would it really matter to me that the door wasn't finished? And even more so, wouldn't I want it to stay unfinished?

Jai Pausch is the wife of now world known Dr. Randy Pausch; unfortunately now she is also a widow. As most people have heard, Randy succumb to his pancreatic cancer on Friday July 25th. That news made me truly sad. I know that Randy lived his life as full as possible, but the world needs more people like him. I felt compelled to read his book "The Last Lecture" as it was sitting in our bookcase. (Corinne had given it to Dave for Father's Day this year.)

All I can say is wow - what a read. I hope everyone reads this book. And I hope I can follow through with some dreams I've promised myself I'd attempt at some point. The point is that there is no time like the present.

On the left I've added some things I promise to do for myself, and I'm going to really follow up on them. As time moves forward, I invite anyone who reads this blog keep me in check by asking what I'd done thus far to see them through. I'll probably be adding to it as I realize things, and I believe that Dave may want to add some things as he finishes the book too.

• I promise myself that I'll take up piano lessons again. I played until I graduated high school and then I stopped. Truth is that I hate to work hard for anything; I am lazy about many things. A lot of things come naturally to me which I take for granted, and I don't like that I have to work to keep them tuned. That is how it was / is for me & music. The ability to read music and play came so easily to me, but I hated to practice. (Heck, that kind of describes my attitude of studying in my college years!) And now I've forgotten how to play. I've gone from winning awards in high school for my abilities to struggling to read 2 lines of music together. And I really miss music; so many nights I dream I am playing the piano or viola or saxophone again and I'm part of a symphony. And I am so happy! I want to try and make that happen - no, I don't want to be a musician, but I guess I just want to get back that love and feeling I had while playing music.
  
• I am scared to death to sky-dive, yet I really want to experience it. I think I should just do it.
  
• The phrase "Jack of all traits, master of none" comes to mind when I think of my hobbies. I have a few, but my favorite is gardening. I didn't do any of it this year knowing that our little girl would occupy so much time. But I miss it, and I want to cultivate more knowledge about this my favorite hobby.
  
• I want to work out to feel better and to live a healthier life - for my daughter as well as myself. I've been thinking about joining a gym in the next month or so, which kind of makes me laugh since I barely have time for myself now. But I think I need this time to myself, to work on myself and strengthen who I am inside and out. I talked to Dave about it and we think we can make it work. It's long overdue.

I hope that today you can take a moment to find real joy in something simple and small, and maybe even celebrate a small victory!