Friday, January 26, 2007

The Future

It’s so easy to only look forward when you’re set in a certain set of circumstances. When Superdad was in law school it was always: when he’s done then I can stay home and we’ll move into a bigger house.

The summer before we moved to the Milwaukee area it was: in three months we’ll be in a nice house that we own in a really nice neighborhood.

Every pregnancy for me was simply one long look forward to the day that baby would come and life would unalterably change. Little time was spent reflecting on the actual pregnancy.

Time was, and seemingly still is, spent looking forward. It always seems as if the present is simply a precursor to a bigger and better future.

What’s easy to forget is that today’s present is yesterday’s future. How is it that we can be enjoying the dream we once so longed for if we’ve forgotten we dreamed it and have our eyes, once again, affixed on a different goal?

Goals, ambition and future gazing are not bad things. But, they can be, in my opinion, if they breed discontentment and restlessness with the present. It's hard, at times, to be thankful for the mundane and ordinary; it's human nature to want to grasp the extraordinary.

I'm determined to try and be more thankful for all that I have been blessed with. No, I'll not stop looking anxiously ahead and setting goals for myself and my family, but if the goal I set paints the present as dull and uninteresting or, worse yet, makes me ungrateful for what I currently have, then perhaps the goal isn't worth it after all.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

wise words were written in this blog. some lessons here for all of us.

Alexis Jacobs said...

This is a great post. Thanks.

Unknown said...

I think we all can say "I totally know what you mean" :)

Terri said...

good stuff.