We have a limited run of life on this planet. Many of us will die of natural causes or illness and some will die because of those seemingly random acts of violence encountered through accidents or crime. Some of us will die because of our occupations. Thinking of these things often makes me pause and ask am I using my time on this Earth to the best effect? The answer is usually a "no" but I suspect it is the same for many: the hard bit is to recognise what would make life better for us and then implement a change process in our lives to achieve what we identified. Sounds all very simple doesn't it? Well, it's not really. What makes life better changes as life itself brings changes we couldn't contemplate into our reckoning. I was once quite a social person and seeing as many friends as possible on weekends and evenings was my goal. That changed a lot when first I met my girlfriend (now wife) and it changed even more when I married and then again with the arrival of children. Now, an observer would say I was not very social at all. I guess the point of that is to show how my goal of being a social person changed to be more family-centric. My goals now are about fun, love and care for my family and friendship is probably not a high goal at the moment but I know I don't want to ever lose that.
This weekend is the May Bank Holiday in the UK, which means I have a long weekend because Monday is counted as a holiday by my employer. We have several Bank Holidays in the UK each year and with every one of them so far I've not really capitalised on the extra time available: I suppose that's because it is only one extra day and weekends just seem to fly by anyway that it doesn't seem so big a deal when it comes down to it. But somewhere within me I feel I should be doing more on these days than I actually do. However, perhaps tomorrow will feel different than other Bank Holidays have this year because tomorrow I'm attending Collectormania again - last year was great, so I'm hoping for good things this year.
I'm looking forward to next weekend when The Eurovision Song Contest is on Saturday Night. I'm going to eat loads of unhealthy food and drink beer and enjoy the competition. I hope Scooch do well but the quality of performance and songs just seems to go up and up each year. I love it, even though I know lots of people hate it and call it naff. I love the little promo clips for the countries that take part. The only sad thing in a way is that there has been a move away from the traditional dress/song to a more generic Euro-centric dance beat, that's OK but it does mean there are less of the strange and bizarre acts than there used to be. Still good fun though.
4 comments:
We are in the same boat as you as far as friendships go.. The ones that do tend to stick around also have theri own families. Which gives us something in common. The ones that choose to not stay in contact are the ones that are usually not sure which path their lives are on. Until they themselves have family they don't understand where we are. If this makes any sense at all. I know alot of our friends all have families but they have busy lives too and not always have the time to spend with you and yours..
The Eurovision Song Contest sounds like great fun!
And I know what you mean about our focus changing once we have families. It still seems to me that you and your wife do lots of fun things with the kids. It isn't like you have given up on going out into the world completely...you are just going to more kidcentric places I suppose.
How many holidays to you have for work per year?
I get seven paid holidays per year plus 3 weeks paid vacation and 3 personal days.
Babybull40: I sometimes think of what advantages people living in communes must have. But then I don't think I'd enjoy other aspects of communal life - I like some distance between us and the neighbours.
L.B.: Yeah, that's true. Having kids has actually enabled me to spend my time in a better way, I've been places I never would have without kids.
Rachel: We have 8 days of public holidays (including Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Years Day) and I personally get five and a half weeks paid employer holiday.
Post a Comment