Mid-life wakeup call?

[JennifersLost]

Two close friends are facing life-changing situations. One has an aggressive form of breast cancer, the other has a cancerous brain tumor. She discovered this when she blacked out while driving, wrecked the car and shattered her leg.

 

Besides all the regular fear/sadness/worry issues (I'm far from them and can only do so much to "help") I find that suddenly I'm questioning everything that I'm doing with my life and feeling very restless. Like I want to drop everything and have all the adventures I never had.

 

Do you ever feel you are slipping slowly, day-by-day, into old age before you get to the stuff you meant to do when you were young?

 

I want to begin to "seize the day" but there is always so much laundry to be done!

[Remudamom]

It seems I realize a lot lately that the children will be grown up soon. While I obviously want them to grow up and have lives, it really saddens me too. And hopefully it will remind me to enjoy them being around and underfoot while I still have them here.

 

And while I know it takes time to aquire wisdom, I sometimes wish I knew what I know now when I was 20.

[WTMCassandra]

Yes, the dailiness of life tends to take over our dreams. Yet, in the dailiness of life, we are also fulfilling great purposes by pouring our lives into our children. Sometime I wonder if nothing is what it seems. Do be kind to yourself and give yourself time to grieve for your friends, but also, perhaps this can be a spur to determine what really are your important dreams. Then, you can use the energy of the "angst" to take the first small steps to making them come true. Thanks for good food for thought.

[MJN]

lost a friend almost three years ago to a massive heart attack at age 41. I still can't believe it. There is not a day I don't think about him and what his wife (my best friend from school years) is going through. I think about it everytime I back out of the driveway. Will I come home? What would happen to the children? Would they be able to handle life without mom? Have I given them the tools they need for life? Have I given them the tools to walk with Christ? When he died, my relationship with my dh changed. I began to appreciate and love him more. I began to be give more of myself to make sure he is happy. We talk about life and death issues more than we did before he died. It really makes you ponder about life and helps to put priorities in order. We are never promised tomorrow. I think we have to make each day count.

 

Hugs,

 

Molly

[Gigi]

Yes. My step-father passed away of a heart attack at 32 and my mother-in-law passed away in her 30's. So I always had in the back of my mind that life is short.

 

But then a friend in our homeschool group passed away from cancer a few months ago. She was in her 30's and had 5 children. She was such a great example and it really allowed me to take stock at where I am now. It allowed me to jump at the chance to go to London and then Paris with my husband even though it put stress on our finances. I think before then I would have come up with an excuse or two not to go with plans of going in the future.

 

There are many times I am driving around and I think of her and it makes me really appreciate all that I have and realize I need to enjoy today and sometimes drop the daily routine and do something that brings me or my family joy.