Yesterday my friend asked me to meet her at her house at 12:45 to go kayaking with her and some other people. I sat there thinking about the invitation for a few minutes. Today I had a 10 am brunch up in Brewster. My friend lives in Falmouth. The two places are practically on either end of the Cape. But the weather is going to be so gorgeous and I really, really wanted to kayak.
Maybe I can do it. I email her back telling her my plan to get out of brunch by 11:30 and try to make it. She emails me back that due to traffic it would be hard and I’d be overloading myself. The more I thought about what she said, I realized she was right. We also had a Cape Cod Children’s Writers meeting at 6:30 pm. Yes, I conceded, she definitely had a point, so I dejectedly wrote back and said I’d take a raincheck. I was kind of disappointed. I really wanted to kayak.
She answered me back, laughing, saying I’m just like her – the two of us are always trying to cram a week’s worth of living into one day. I smiled. She was right. Sometimes I think I don’t really do anything at all in this retired life. It takes someone to look in from the outside and point out the things I don’t see that are right I front of me. Another “joie de vevre” in the casual observation of a friend.
I do a lot. I still have a lot I want to do. We only get one life to cram it all in. We only get one body, too. In order to live this joyful life we must take care of it. We must eat good, unprocessed food, exercise regularly, attend to our spiritual “God stuff”, spend time with family and friends, and enjoy good wine.
Thanks, Joan, for helping me find “joie de vevre” even in disappointment. Instead of finding obvious joy, try seeing it in disappointing things or in things you just don’t want to do. I guarantee it’s a whole different kind of joy.
And so, as another day goes by, life is full of great and not-so-great things, but I intend to find the joie de vevre in all of them, and …I have written.
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