Almost none of those things happened. The Monopoly was sabotaged early on by the one person who did not want to play (no names will be named). The cookies were not made because frankly, I am just really bad at baking. The crepes would have taken too much time. In the end the soup is all that came of my big plans.
I can't say that I don't feel a little disappointed that the day passed by in the way it did. A little frustrated (mostly with myself but also with the rest of my family who seem utterly content lying around all day doing nothing).
I seem to carry a feeling with me of how short our time here on earth is. Christmas rolls around with all of its hype and work and hooplah and expectations. But if we are very, very lucky, we will see 100 Christmases. And 100 is not that big a number. We live as if we have infinity at our disposal but here in this body, in this place, we do not.
The Moving Finger writes; and having writ,
Moves on
Nor all thy Piety, nor Wit shall lure it back
to cancel half a line.
- Omar Khayyam
This is not meant to be depressing, although, if I think about it long enough, I can surely get depressed. No, rather, it is a call to live each day as if I am writing it in the book of my life - which I am.
But that begs the question... who says what is the right way to live? Who says it is more noble or somehow better to bake cookies and play Monopoly than lounge around and do nothing? Is it really a crime to be idle? Is the beggar really to be scorned for not making his living in the culturally accepted way?
I don't have the answers for these questions. Most of us are guided either by our happiness or our sense of duty (and isn't duty a commitment to the happiness of others?). So happiness and duty are the guiding lights by which most of us lead our lives. Few would argue that one is more important than the other. So, is there really something wrong with leading one's life in a way that makes one happy even if it does nothing for other people? Is there a spiritual contract that we make, in coming to earth that we will try to make others happy?
So many mysteries and so few answers. But I think I will let it be. The day was what it was. It was neither good nor bad. It is only my thinking that wants to label it.
At every moment in time we create our own reality. We can not control other people and we can not fully control what happens to us, but we can control how we choose to think about things.
On a different note, Quinten asked me what I was doing and I explained to him that I was writing a blog and also what a blog was. This is his contribution to the blog today:
I can't say that I don't feel a little disappointed that the day passed by in the way it did. A little frustrated (mostly with myself but also with the rest of my family who seem utterly content lying around all day doing nothing).
I seem to carry a feeling with me of how short our time here on earth is. Christmas rolls around with all of its hype and work and hooplah and expectations. But if we are very, very lucky, we will see 100 Christmases. And 100 is not that big a number. We live as if we have infinity at our disposal but here in this body, in this place, we do not.
The Moving Finger writes; and having writ,
Moves on
Nor all thy Piety, nor Wit shall lure it back
to cancel half a line.
- Omar Khayyam
This is not meant to be depressing, although, if I think about it long enough, I can surely get depressed. No, rather, it is a call to live each day as if I am writing it in the book of my life - which I am.
But that begs the question... who says what is the right way to live? Who says it is more noble or somehow better to bake cookies and play Monopoly than lounge around and do nothing? Is it really a crime to be idle? Is the beggar really to be scorned for not making his living in the culturally accepted way?
I don't have the answers for these questions. Most of us are guided either by our happiness or our sense of duty (and isn't duty a commitment to the happiness of others?). So happiness and duty are the guiding lights by which most of us lead our lives. Few would argue that one is more important than the other. So, is there really something wrong with leading one's life in a way that makes one happy even if it does nothing for other people? Is there a spiritual contract that we make, in coming to earth that we will try to make others happy?
So many mysteries and so few answers. But I think I will let it be. The day was what it was. It was neither good nor bad. It is only my thinking that wants to label it.
At every moment in time we create our own reality. We can not control other people and we can not fully control what happens to us, but we can control how we choose to think about things.
On a different note, Quinten asked me what I was doing and I explained to him that I was writing a blog and also what a blog was. This is his contribution to the blog today:
How to be happy if you are 7 (thoughts by Quinten)
If you have a trampoline, you should go and jump on it.
If bad things happen to you, you should take a pillow and let your anger out, or if you have a punching bag, you should use that.
If bad things happen to you, you should take a pillow and let your anger out, or if you have a punching bag, you should use that.
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