It's Time to Get Serious

It's time to get serious about....

FREEDOM - are we taking our freedoms so much for granted that we no longer even pay attention when their very existence is threatened? And not by terrorists, but by our own government?

MORAL JUDGEMENT and HONORABLE PRINCIPLES - are we lowering the bar for our children and grandchildren by lowering the bar for our standard of acceptance when it comes to elected officials, church leaders, community organizers? are we electing and approving poor role models for them to follow?

FINANCIAL SECURITY - are we trusting our future to someone who really isn't looking after our best interest first, after all, handling our money is how they earn their money. Sure, good management of investments is their job security but their bottom line remains their own.

FAMILY TIME - are we spending so much time making sure our kids can keep up with the neighbor kids through lessons, sports, activities, extracurricular events, tutoring and other things that take them away from home that they are not even familiar with what a HOME should be?

CHILDREARING - are we turning the responsibility of teaching and raising our children over to day care centers?

HOUSEHOLD BUDGETS - are we working so hard to balance the family budget that there isn't a family left? With both parents in the workforce, are our children losing any real sense of family and home to the necessity of a double income to buy wants not needs?

PHYSICAL CONDITION - are we eating while we work and working so many hours that we never have time to move, to exercise, to take care of our bodies? Are we sleeping enough?

SPIRITUALITY - are we taking time to say thank you, to reflect on the blessings of each day, to remember the miracles in our life? Ere we left our rooms this morning, did we think to pray? are we feeding our spirits as often as we feed our bodies?

RECREATION - are we giving ourselves time to rejuvenate? are we taking time to smell the flowers? has Calgon taken us away recently?

ENVIRONMENT - are we listening to the concerns about waste and pollution? are we recognizing that although some may take this issue too far, it is a reality we can improve? are we buying smarter, thinking green where it makes sense, disposing of garbage appropriately and recycling when we can? are we littering or do we stop to find a trash can?

MENTAL and EMOTIONAL HEALTH - are we looking for opportunities to relieve ourselves of stress? are we strengthening relationships by investing time in them? do we have date nights? do we listen? do we talk? do we find alone time? do we take vacations, if only for a one day road trip? do we let the house go for a day and do something fun instead?

THE SIMPLE LIFE - are we making choices to simply our lives? are we choosing the less damaging paths? are we seeking calm away from the chaos that has become a norm for so many?

BALANCE - are we working to balance the three-legged stool? are we finding time to serve others, to serve God and to serve ourselves? do we make time for church, work and family? can we find time for solitude, for family time, for community work?

So many areas of my life need improvement and I am working on them even now. It's too late to completely fix some of them but I am serious about changing what I still can.

I am sure I missed something, but this is a pretty good start, dontcha think?

I don't know about you but for me it's time to live life to its fullest. This list will help...

Live Your Life "T.I (feat.) Rihanna"

Trash Day

Why is it that every day of the week EXCEPT trash day, I think to myself...is today trash day? And then I madly rush around, tugging my jeans on (since I am still in my pj's) and gathering waste baskets in my arms before dashing out to the trash can and then doing the 100 yard dash to the curb.

Trash day is a great example of how people work. It represents good and bad personality traits: procrastination, forgetfulness, the ability to rally when there is a need (remember hearing the truck rumbling down the street and knowing that you have not put the trash can out and are not even dressed yet? Are there other times of nonemergency that you can remember where you have hustled at that pace? I highly doubt it). Trash day is unique.

In some ways, trash day is a symbol of life at its best and worst. Piles of garbage thrown into a large box truck. Responsible people rushing to get every last scrap of waste out of their lives for at least one more week - kind of like communion or sacrament. Any spoiled food and torn pieces of paper are quickly collected and tossed into wastebaskets then carted outside to the trash can which is lugged behind you (thankfully on wheels now) to the curb.

We kick our trash to the curb weekly, just as we rid ourselves of the waste in our lives that needs to be left behind so that we can move forward.

And we need to kick some bad habits out too. And bad thoughts, and old anger, and hatred, and jealousy, and any inability on our part to be tolerant and to forgive. To the curb with all of it. Let's get rid of the trash!

And let's do it with the same energy and determination that we use on trash day, when we hear that rumble a few doors down the street. Let's clean out those closets, straighten our drawers, peek into those ignored dark corners, shine some light into the shadows and empty our lives of unnecessary waste and time-consuming, spirit-draining negativity. It's unsanitary, it's unhealthy, it's trash.

Trash day. It's today. Get rid of the cobwebs. Shake out the anger. Forget the wrongdoings. Toss it all.

Today is trash day, don't miss it. It won't come around again for another week and that's 7 more days of waste, of life lived incompletely, of limited spirituality because there is so much trash in the way.  Do we really have that much time on our hands? Seven more days to waste? Seven more days OF waste?

I don't. It's trash day, and I am tossing stuff left and right. It's time to get rid of guilt and anger, to let go of past mistakes that hurt others and past hurts caused by others. Fix what you can and get rid of the rest.

And I hope that on that last day of our lives, when we are forced to really examine even the deepest lint-filled pockets of our life, on that very last trash day on earth, we are not scrambling around trying to find hidden piles of trash in the hopes we can still toss it out; I think it might be too late if we wait that long. The old trash we never got rid of will have soured and festered and melded together and become part of who we are, or it will be in that darkest corner we never clean out. At that moment, I really think it might be too late. After all, I know that feeling - I have missed the garbage truck before, haven't you?

So, toss it out now. You will feel better. And trash day will be so much easier.

Weird Al "Trash Day"