Painting by Belynda Wilson Thomas

Never give up on a dream just because of the time it will take to accomplish it. The time will pass anyway. Earl Nightingale

Last night I was looking at a post on Linked In and it said when we look at things we “get to” do instead of what we “have to” do we get an attitude change. How many people wish they could still do what we get to do, how many people have never gotten to do some of the things we take for granted?

When we say we “get to” instead of we “have to” we are stating we have choice and opportunity. If we get to go to work today how lucky we are. If we get to drive a vehicle to work, go to the store today, make dinner, and get to eat it with family how lucky are we?

How many people wish mundane things they took for granted were still theirs to do, and enjoy? When we change the way we look at things, do the things we look at change? The Stoics believe we should spend some time looking at what we could lose in our lives as a way of appreciating what we have.

When we acknowledge that we get to do something we acknowledge if circumstances were different we might not, that we have something to be grateful for. We get to say good morning to our spouse this morning. I get to call Mom today and what a blessing that is.

I watched part of a fallen police officer’s wife’s speech over the weekend. How blessed she would feel if she could say good morning to her husband. A simple pleasure like that is gone from her life. It can be gone from our life as well and we need to enjoy these pleasures while we have them.

If there is a conversation we need to have with someone we need to have it now. One of the ways to live a life of few regrets is to enjoy as much of our lives as we can instead of sleepwalking through life thinking of it as the same old, same old. Some day we may wish we had some of the things that bother us about someone because they would still be with us.

Mondays are a great day to focus on what we “get to” do instead of what we “have to” do. Life is a gift, not an obligation. Jon Gordon

I’ve been working hard on getting my second novel out. What a privilege it is to be able to write that. I said to my husband, “I’ll be glad when it’s done when this is over.” He said, “You won’t be done.” He’s right, I’m not done writing I’m just done with this project.

I love the journey of writing, painting, and living. I love who I am when I am engaged in creativity. I love being part of a family with all that entails. I love sharing my life with a dog. Can we enjoy the pleasures in life, knowing they are fleeting and a new stage is coming?

I feel aimless at the end of a project and so I’ve quit ending everything at once. I have new projects already on the go as I finish the one I am working on. No matter what stage in life we are at we may face the end of things. We may need to find new things to occupy our time that was taken up by work or family.

Some of the things we got to do may be over. Our children don’t need us as much as they did. This is an opportunity to develop ourselves in new ways, find new ways to live a creative life, develop other aspects of ourselves we didn’t have time for. We get to make choices about how we will spend our time. If we raised a family there were years when we had no time for ourselves. It was all about work and kids, and we may look back fondly at those as the best years of our lives.

We are blessed we get to do so many things. Will it make a difference as we say we “get to” do, instead of what we “have to” do?

Incredible change happens in your life when you decide to take control of what you do have power over instead of craving control over what you don’t. Steve Maraboli

You’ll have to be grateful for what we can do instead of angry about what we can’t. Eric Walters

All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us. J.R.R. Tolkien

Thank you for reading this post. I hope you enjoyed it. I hope you will come back and read some more. Have a blessed day filled with gratitude, joy, and love.

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