Sunday
Aug082010
I'd Rather Be Fishing
August 8, 2010 * * * * * Posted by: Ginnie 
Those bumper stickers always make me smile. I'd rather be fishing or biking or dancing or quilting or whatever. The list is endless.
Monday is notarious for people "rathering" to do almost anything than going back to work after the weekend. Even though I'm retired now, I still remember those days. To be honest, I liked going to work so Mondays never bothered me. Nor was I a big partier, so I didn't have to deal with hangovers. But I know I was the exception to the rule.
One sticker says "I'd rather be digging my grave" and that got me thinking. Why is it that we'd almost always rather be doing something different than what we're doing right now? Or why are we often thinking about something fun we did back then...or will do this weekend or 4 weeks/months/years from now? I'm not sure it's just about the grass-being-greener thing. I think it's about a very human condition: we tend to live in the furure or the past but seldom in the NOW. It takes a lot of work.
There's much written on the subject, of course (Eckhart Tolle's The Power of Now being one of the best), and sometimes "incidents" remind us to just enjoy what we have right now. Astrid heard the other day, for instance, about a previous neighbor who suddenly keeled over and died at age 56. I wonder if he was enjoying life before that moment or if he had things on his back burner for another day that will now never come.
Maybe I'm talking about two things: enjoying what's happening right now (even if it's Monday morning at work) AND making the things we enjoy happen now instead of who knows when. But why is either so hard?
Surely there are sticking points beyond our control. Our hands are tied. We have responsibility, health and money issues. Some things will simply never happen and we all know it. And so we brainwash ourselves into thinking we are stuck and things will never change. Our now becomes ho-hum or, for some, downright miserable.
Some people have more fire under them than others and are the go-getters we watch and marvel at. They seem to have an easy time of making things happen. But that's probably not true. We may never know the blood, sweat and tears that got them to where they are now. All we know is our story and how trapped or in a rut we can feel. If the cycle never breaks, it can be truly depressing.
We saw the above little girl the other weekend while driving out in the countryside here in The Netherlands not far from home...and I saw myself in her. My body is getting older and less capable but that Child is bouncing around like a ping-pong ball inside of me, often pestering me with "C'mon. Let's go fishing!"
And why not? Let's just go do it. Let's enjoy the work on our plate, do the dishes with a smile on our face and...then go fishing. Have our cake and eat it, too. Little rewards after the odd jobs of my retired life, waiting for the out-n-about weekend after Astrid has worked her tail off all week. Okay, it's Monday. How many more days till Friday, did you say? It sure beats the digging-my-grave alternative!
[Did you see Toni and Marcie's V2V post on Saturday? Marcie's little boy and my little girl are fishing buddies! :) ]
Reader Comments (15)
Somehow - this brought tears to my eyes. The power and strength in simply being in this present moment..just doing 'it' because life is to short not to. It's all so profound..and something that gets so easily lost and forgotten in our day-to-day busyness.
And that little girl fishing - well...she is the perfect buddy for my little boy. Both - so happy and determined..and totally free to be in the 'now'.
Wonderful - both words and image! Thank-you for this little reminder to live it up and enjoy it all while we can.
I am with you here, read the book, working on it every day !
Hey Ginnie...we are also "newly retired" and the knowledge that there are no more Monday mornings takes some getting used to! The thoughts that you could do alot of the things you've always dreamed of is enough to make you giddy...the first thing we did was leave the south & come to the desert for a year, think about it all, work on art and try to come up with a plan....like get a "caravan" and wander the southwest selling the art, move back to the mountains, spend some time on the Oregon coast with family....it's all pretty trippy! It helps that we have never needed all the material things & like keeping it simple. Thanks for your post this morning, I look forward to spending a few minutes with you gals!
Ah ginnie, I am far from retired and yes, shhh, I'm at my desk on a Monday morning, rathering. I will take your wise words and focus now. Perhaps the satisfaction of a job well done will give me the energy to carry on when I get home tonight, rather than being exhausted from a long day at work.
Cheers!
xo
A wonderful image, Ginnie. My son took his girlfriend (her first time) and her daughter (my future granddaughter) fishing yesterday and they both caught their first fish. His girlfriend a four pound bass! What a way to start! Yes, I know the "I'd rather be" syndrome all too well, as I soon have to head to work this morning. But, I'll be thinking of your post all day. :)
You have found fine words, Ginnie, I completely agree with! Yes, I'm sure we human beings might be happier if we were able to live the moments without any being driven in our thoughts and feelings to the following hours, the comming days, months whatever we have to do, whatever we will be doing, whatever we want to do ... -I remember a little story I sadly only read in German: A wise man was once asked why he was -despite all his troubles- so well-balanced, so calm, and composed, he said: "When I'm standing, then I'm standing. When I'm going, then I'm going. When I'm sitting, then I'm sitting. When I'm eating, then I'm eating. When I'm speaking, then I'm speaking, when I'm praying, then I'm praying..." The other people said: " Yes, we do the same." The wise man said: "No, no! When you sit, you already stand in your thoughts. When you go, you are already at the end of your walk..." -
I very like the picture capturing one moment the girl is totally absorbed in. She may realize this life philosophy of the wise man without being conscious of that -let's be like the children who are living the moments while playing...-
I often hear the people complaining about their work and saying for example that their holidays were the best time of the year. Is that right? I'm convinced: Every day, every doing may contain some pleasure and some 'profit' - maybe, as teacher I had a wonderfully challenging job or better a profession and I loved my work although it was not easy. Now I'm enjoying my retirement full of duties and hobbies, and I like discovering new aspects of life I didn't realized before! The philosophy of the wise man and of the picture are pearls we should look at and preserve- every day - even if only for some moments!
I will try to live in the moment more often. Even if it's at work:)
The grass being greener? Possibly those are also what hide in our dreams of what we want to do but are not doing yet??? And what we enjoy but are not doing currently....
Love the pic of the girl... Ah yes I cannot wait to take time off to enjoy and smell the roses, no matter what activity it might be!
This was wonderful, and made me smile, because my post for tomorrow talks about that very thing, living in the moment. When I was younger I always found myself doing exactly what you said, wishing I were somewhere else, doing something different, always thinking that someday when this or this or this happened my real life would begin. Then I realized that there is only this one moment that we are in to live. That this is the life I have, this one I am in, right now. It is so important to view life this way, thank you!
Many wise words again but than, you always have wise words. I know last Monday morning I said to you, just before I left for work.....almost weekend again.....grin...erm, for the ones that do not know, I work full time.
We both try to live in the NOW, it is all we have, we both have a past, I do hope we both have a future, however living in the now is what we try to do.
Last Friday I came home and I was again in my 'what might happen in a few months mode', during the weekend you made me realise that it does not help me or you to try to look into the future.
Live the moment, be happy with it, even if that means go to work every day, try to make something out of life, we have to live it so we better make something beautiful out of it.
Thank you for your wise words, I am always all ears.
A beautiful post and a fabulous picture with it.
IHVJ.
I'm in total agreement Ginnie. For the young, life appears to stretch out forever, and when you're 5 or 6, even having to wait two days to visit the cinema or the circus seems like an eternity.
And despite the entreaties of the older generation, younger folk will continue to "wish their lives away"...
Your wise, philosophical musings occur to most of us as we get older, lose a few friends, and reluctantly come to the conclusion that we aren't immortal and the expression "live for the day" becomes increasing relevant....
Lovely pic by the way.
After reading this, my post holiday blues have vanished!
I get a bit of it but to be honest, the satisfaction I get from seeing just one patient look better and say they feel better is more than any ''greener grass on the other side''
Very thoughtful piece. Well done
A different George than the commenter here posted about this very topic, and used the poem Ulysses by Tennyson. It's a challenge to live in the now, but also have goals and intentions, to want to do better at adventure. Maybe at our age it's about exploring the inner world, with lots of inspiration from the outer.
Lovely post, my dear, and very sychronicitous for me today.
days race by here, weeks too - sometimes i wonder what i missed in all of it. my uk trip went by so fast (ok so the crying baby bit i'm not so sad about, i'm back in tz now :)). photographs capture occasions and remind me of where i was. sometimes it's like that, well probably most of the time. but then other times stand out and i can remember how i felt at the exact time; we were out on west kili and carlos the spanish horseman was cantering under the moon and dirk played the guitar to accompany the horses hooves...and the sky was vast above us, kilimanjaro to our back, meru in front, and i know i won't forget that, won't ever forget the stuff like that. i suppose the mundane is bound to blur in comparison :)
I haven't read that book but now it's on my list. I work on this every day because I feel times fly so fast and I try to keep up.