Watching tonight, a quote struck me. One of the characters was telling another something his mom always told him: "If as you look back over the past year it doesn't bring you tears of joy or sadness, then consider it a year wasted."
I know that's just one person's opinion of how to measure a year, but in some ways it's a good way.
Or, there's always a year according to RENT:
In other news...Happy 4th of July! Independence Day always has various meanings for my family and I. It's an interesting day, but we aren't the traditional celebrators. Maybe I'll expand on this another time. Tonight's not the night.
I don't like to think of time as wasted, but I do think that our lives should always have joy & sadness in them. That's hard, but how do we define one without the other? Also, I totally love thinking back to where I was a year from this date. I can do that at any time in my life and I always marvel at how much has changed and usually, I'm very happy with many of the changes. How about you? Happy with what has changed since July of 2013 or still waxing nostalgic for some things? :)
ReplyDeleteI totally agree that it's not time wasted. I think his point was that we should allow ourselves to really feel the emotions of a year. I think one of the best parts (and hardest parts) about being human is the ability to truly feel emotion in life.
DeleteHA. As for me, there are TONS of changes. First of all, I have now been teaching for 2 full years. I am no longer teaching Preschool, I am taking an entire summer off (sort of?) in years, and I am more independent and in many ways more successful than I was a year ago. I am more organized, more relaxed, and I think happier in many ways, too. Of course, there are some disappointments and challenges, too. I also have lots of plans and goals that I'm working on, which I won't say quite yet. I want to make sure some of them are happening for real first! But I would definitely say July 2013 is very different from July 2012! By the way, I LOVE that phrase "waxing nostalgic". Thank you for putting it back in my brain. :) (Our brain?)
our brain of course :)
DeleteI'm glad to hear you are happier! Of course there will always be disappointments and things that didn't go the way we wanted them to, but I think that's okay. A lot of times the things we wanted SO badly, weren't good for us in the first place. We don't always see it, but sometimes we can look back on a situation and be grateful that it didn't happen the way that we wanted it to. I never thought I'd be grateful to be rejected from 8 different teaching positions, but if I hadn't I never would have ended up in Thailand!