As I sit down to compose this blog post, I’m coming off 4 hours of choppy sleep, 12 hours of work, and a frantic 20-minute quick shower/change in between. Wishful thinking had me planning to have a blog written the night before, therefore all tonight would consist of was a quick post at a reasonable hour so as not to miss my 30+ week streak of Wednesday Blog Days.
But alas.
I began my morning babysitting two rambunctious boys and the most devilishly adorable puppy. We found ourselves playing the board game Life—a childhood favorite of mine (only the version they have doesn’t include physical LIFE tokens and you don’t automatically buy a house when you get married).
Another difference is where you begin. Just like the version I played, you can begin straight into career or pay to go to college first. Conversely, in this modern version, you don’t start with graduation. It takes about 15 spaces and (with my spinner luck) about 10 turns to get there. As I hit my virtual graduation, I looked back at where I began, about 15 spaces away.
“That’s kinda where I am now,” I said to the boys, looking at where my plastic yellow car had started.
And now I’m here… sitting at a graduation that will come 15 school weeks after my September 1st start.
But the idea for this blog didn’t come from any sort of graduation phenomenon. Instead, the gears started turning a little further down the literal blocked road.
THIS IS LIFE.
Yes, I was literally playing “The Game of Life,” but more than that, I was experiencing life.
Soon I had a job—I was a lawyer—and a husband, an attractive blue peg. Before I knew it, I had a baby boy and two baby girls. We bought the “eco-house” which, by the time I retired, I sold for a $100k profit (talk about a sign of the times)! I had an animal named after me and had my prize winning tomatoes ruined. Oh, the highs and the lows that are expected from the game of life…and in real life. How obviously similar.
As the day led on to endurance trampoline jumping, I paused to watch my quarrelsome pair of pint-sized kiddos laughing and playing and soaring and smiling.
THAT IS LIFE.
The last stop on the Life game board is the retirement home. And although in this new version you did get paid for reaching the end of the board first, in real life, you don’t get a prize for rushing through.
In fact, it’s quite the opposite. Because all of the truly wondrous moments of life come in the instants that we throw ambition to the wind to truly appreciate its little joys.
Hours later then, at my nursing home job, rather than concerning my mind with useless thoughts of an unwritten blog or an unfinished To-Do list, I shut it off. I blocked out the worry and spun in my sunny yellow dress, dancing with my residents to the music of an accordion playing entertainer.
Here’s to making the most out of this crazy little joy ride that is our game of living.
Love always,
Liz