Remember when you were a kid, and time seemed to drag on forever, especially if you were waiting for something special (a birthday, or Christmas, or summer vacation to start)? When the Bag Lady was a wee child
She was right, too (actually, she was right about most things, but she was an incredibly smart, talented woman....after all, she raised the Bag Lady!) The Bag Lady sometimes wonders where the hell the time went. How did it get to be 2008? Who turned the calendar ahead so fast? What happened to that fabulous existence the Bag Lady kept putting off until later.... "Oh," she would tell herself, "There's plenty of time to do .....!" or; "As soon as I do ...., I can finally do ....." (you can fill in the blanks)
Well, life happened, that's what happened. The Bag Lady has led a varied life. It wasn't perhaps the life she thought she would live, but there is very little about it that she would change. Well, okay, maybe a couple things. But not very many. She would have been kinder to herself; she would never have started smoking, and maybe wouldn't have eaten that escargot that time (that was 15 years ago and she can still taste it - that shit'll kill ya!) but she is grateful for the experiences she has had, and truly feels that she is where she is supposed to be
How about you? Are you where you thought you would be? Where you should be?
Sheesh, the heat must be getting to her! Okay, enough soul-searching, back to our regularly scheduled blogging!
Here are the sunflowers that the messy birds planted in the Bag Lady's flowerbed:
The bees find them attractive:
And that's how things were at the ranch this week...Have a great weekend!
32 comments:
What a lovely, reflective post! And sunflowers too - they never fail to make me smile (even with a thumping headache...oofff)
I am so bad for always focussing on What's Next, I often forget to look at what I've achieved so far. I am very proud of me. I have a job that I absolutely love, I own my own house, I have a great boyfriend I want to be with always, and I've fought all this back from the edge of (whisper it) illness-maybe-death just two years ago. That's pretty cool.
Thanks for reminding me to be thankful, Bag Lady!
TA x
so THATS how different our worlds are.
after the pediatrician yesterday the Tornado and I went to the store and bought a sunflower mylar balloon as big as her head :) and brought it to the husbands office as a surprise/day brightener.
yours is faaaaaaaaar prettier.
M.
I love sunflowers! They used to line the road up to our house when I was a kid. Until some mean old man came and mowed them down with his tractor.
You know, I actually am where I thought I'd be at this point in my life. The question is, where will I go next?
Great post!
I'm with TAx, it's the "What's Next" thing that gets me. Life's too short to keep waiting for the next thing, yet I always feel like my "real" life is going to start soon, just as soon as I... whatever.
Life is NOW!
TA - I'd be proud of myself, too, if I were you! What great accomplishments! Glad the sunflowers made you smile!
Mizfit - thanks! Glad you like them, but I can't take credit for them - I'm serious when I say the birds planted them. Messy eaters! Perhaps if you fed the Tornado out in the yard.... :)
Gena - I'm sure you will find the right path. It always seems that one decision leads to another choice and, as long as you are happy, it must have been the right one!
Crabby - I'm quite guilty of that, too. Always looking ahead. We need to remind ourselves occasionally to just enjoy the moment!
Great post, df Bag Lady. Whole beautiful summer days stretched out ahead endlessly when we were young. Now, I bent down to pick something up in early July and when I looked up again it was mid-August.
I used to long to be a grown up. Then I got here and saw how damn much work there was involved.
Sigh.
Beautiful sunflower pics. Brightened my morning.
dfLeah - that's exactly how I feel about this summer!! Thanks for expressing it so well. (Now I know why you get paid to write and I don't!!)
Glad you like the birds' landscaping efforts!
More sunflowers - yay!
Great thoughts. I think about things like that alot...who thought I would be living alone with a Bad Cat and hopefully a Bad Kitten on the way at 43? Try not to dwell on it too much, just look forward to enjoying more of life in the future :-) We will see if it works!
One of my favorite quotes is "It is never too late to be what might have been."
I never really had big plans for life. I mostly just wanted to be happy, see the world, have a wonderful companion, and be able to afford to live a fairly comfortable life. I've got all of those things.
Sometimes I feel a little squirmy about what I want and where I'm going. That's when I try to remind myself just to enjoy the now.
Missicat - that's the attitude we all need to have! Enjoy the time you are in, because it will never come again! I need to keep reminding myself of that!
I love sunflowers! I'm not having an issue with the "what's next" part but "where I am" (unemployed and trying to break into a field that I don't have stellar qualifications for) makes me really sad.
SB - we were posting at the same time - sorry!
I never had firm, well-thought-out plans, either. I had vague, half-baked dreams of what my life might/could be.
Consequently, I have lived a rather vague, half-baked life....
Love that quote, though!
Tricia - you're young, intelligent and talented - things will come together for you, I'm sure! Yours is a blank page to write upon.
(Holy crap, the Bag Lady is sounding all philosophical this morning! WTF?)
memory lane! Love the sunflowers...they are the KS state flower. I am pretty much where I thought I would be except I didn't see myself with toddler twins at 38! I still have things I want to do but I feel like with this time in my life....I am really starting to get "it" and enjoying the little things in a way I never did when I was younger. Life is good. Thanks for the post :)
Annette - I'm glad life is good for you! And commend you - I'm not sure I could have handled twins! Hell, I wasn't sure I could handle one, so never even tried....:)
Life is what happens while you're making other plans?
If you had asked me 20 years ago where I thought life would take me, I'm sure I would not have described the life I have now. But that's ok. There have been ups and downs, but I'm pretty happy with where I've ended up. I do wish that it wouldn't go by so fast though!
I liked this inner-reflection post, it shows the philosophical side to the Bag Lady!
I never thought I'd be working a 'normal' office job, finished with college, married, & a homeowner all before I was 24. But like you, I wouldn't change much about where I am now (I second the never started smoking part!)
The sunflowers make me smile! I hope you have a great weekend : )
I'm pretty content with my life right now and I consider myself very fortunate. We have to define our own success, though. We live immersed in a culture that defines happiness and success in material ways and it's easy to succumb to all those flashy images and think one's own life is not up to par.
I notice a distinct difference in my level of contentedness depending on the degree to which I'm exposed to Big Media's definition of the good life. And since I enjoy being happy, the TV stays off, the shopping malls go unvisited, and the glossy fashion mags stay on the store racks. I do my utmost to ignore society's message that I can't be happy without the "correct" lifestyle trappings.
Success to me is a job where I'm treated well, given interesting challenges (and the tools I need to succeed), and enough money to pay my bills and have something left over to feed my "real" life of hobbies and personal interests.
Things in life change constantly. If you make your happiness dependant on the house, the job, the shoes, or even the people around you, you're bound to be disappointed. Those things all pass.
But enough of that. Great sunflowers! We have lots of little sunflowers here, but my childhood memory is of huge sunflowers in my father's garden in one of the places we lived in Indiana. I seem to recall those sunflowers being almost as tall as my Dad! It's a lovely memory, very closely tied to the one of his cherry tomato plants, the swing he made for me on the buckeye tree, and the summer he grew soybeans only to find that neither he nor my stepmother had any clue what to do with them. LOL!
Javachick - if you has asked me 20 years ago if I would be where I am now, my response would have been a look of profound puzzlement! Funny how your priorities change as you age.
Emily - even at your age, eh? Life takes us in unexpected directions sometimes!
BG - you said it much more eloquently than I!
And I wish I could find the photo of the sunflowers we grew one year - they towered over hubby's head!
Well, I never expected to be here, but I am. Making the best of it that I can and working to change what I can.
Love the sunflower photos, the middle one of the bee, you should take that and get a big print made for the wall in your office.
sunflowers and black eyed susans are my favourites!
Reb - I think that you have the right attitude - make the best of it, but try to change what you can!
Thanks, I like that photo, too!
Sydney - they are such happy-looking flowers, aren't they?
"How about you? Are you where you thought you would be? Where you should be?
I'm not doing so bad, but I tell you I wish I had started sooner on doing what I really wanted to do. Instead of all the time saying "One of these days..."
That's what my whole blog is about, really. I'm doing the 101 goals in 1001 days and I just love it.
"vague half-baked" plans: yes, that's me. I never understood the people in high school and college with definite goals. How could they ignore everything else they might do? And even if they were right about what they wanted most, what if they missed something?
It's hard to say that I'm where I ought to be, when I ought to have been able to move into the new house a year ago and get my business started, and I'm still sitting here waiting. But I've always let the winds of fortune blow me about.
Mary Anne in Kentucky
I am happy with my career - I always wanted to travel the world. I never realized that I would turn 30 and change my mind and want a family - which is where I am now but with no hubby in sight.
Physically, I am in the best shape of my life. Mentally, I am getting there.
Great post. Reflecting is always good.
Melissa - good for you! And I think that all the years *we* spent saying "one of these days" were preparation for us! :)
Mary Anne - I'm a little that way, too - letting the winds blow me around. Going with the flow. And you will get your business going, I'm sure, when you are ready!
POM - You're only 30! Plenty of time for husband and children. It's good to have life experience before you have children - at least, in my opinion!
Yes, life happens to the lucky people who are still around to experience it! I'n not too keen on the alternative. I am very thankful that I have made it this far through life... there have been many ups and downs, but I have a wonderful family and I'm still here! Hooray!
And what caring birds to plant those lovely sunflowers for you. They deserve some more bird seed!
Shammickite - oh, they will get plenty of seeds - including the ones out of the flowers they planted!
And I truly believe that as we get older, we realize there is nothing we can do to change the past, but we can use the knowledge we gained from it to enhance our future!
I'm only 22 so I didn't really expect to be anywhere specific.
There are a few things that have happened that I know I wouldn't have expected though - married and living in Ireland? Whoa dude. And there's a few things in the "right now" that I'm still having trouble dealing with - McGill degree in Biology getting me NO JOY in the job market over here. In fact, getting no joy in the job market at all... so frustrating when as conceited as it is, I know what a good employee I am.
Christine - you have a degree in biology from McGill and you're only 22? Wow!
And I think the fact that you're married and living in Ireland is pretty cool! Wonder where else your life is going to take you...
I heart Sunflowers. The one picture with the close up of the bee? That one should be on webshots. Beautiful pictures!
Aw, thanks, Maggie! I like that one, too. And the bee posed for free!
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