Just Relax

Due to the recent deteriorating state of my truck, I’ve been scheduling my days a bit differently. Lately, I’ve been doing all of my errands in the early mornings while I have the car available to me. That means that any place I need to go must be open no later than 7am, because I have to be back by 8. Because I’m a morning person, I’ve been loving this.

Last week however, I decided that one errand in the truck probably wouldn’t kill it. Just in case, I waited for my son to get home from school and then off we went. After we successfully made our first stop, I decided to chance another. The truck was working great, up until we went to leave the second stop. It was dead as could be. No click, no nothing. After a couple failed jump attempts from some friendly folks, I finally had to call the ‘old man’ to come pick us up. He works a ways away, so we had to wait for a while.

Oddly enough, it was nice! We were stuck at a drug store (prescription, not illegal), which was great because we were able to buy a couple bottles of water. Plus, ironically I had packed a small tupperware dish of baby carrots in my purse before I left the house. Water + carrots + no where to go = picnic on the hood of the truck. Why not? We had the time.

We couldn’t go anywhere or do anything, so we had no other choice but to relax. Well, I guess I could have run around panicking, but where’s the fun in that?  It was a beautiful day to be stranded. The wind was blowing a steady breeze and I could clearly see the clouds topping over the mountains in the distance. We listened as the birds were chirping in the trees across the parking lot, watched the cars rushing by on the street nearby and took notice of how people interacted with each other. People watching in itself can be quite intriguing. I even had the chance to take a picture of a creepy van. When I was a kid we had a van, but let’s be honest; vans are creepy.

Taking time to relax and to just be, is something that is rare these days. We live in a very fast-paced world. One in which causes us to fly through each day without even taking notice of it. We’ve probably all asked at some point, “Where did the day go?” Many times, we don’t even know what we did all day. Yes, we worked and we took care of our daily responsibilities, but did we set aside any time to actually enjoy our day? That’s a difficult thing to do, because there is always something that must be done, a phone call that needs to be made, or an errand that must be run.

Let’s face it, there will always be things that need to be done. That is why we can’t wait for time to come available. Instead, we must make time. Time to spend with our family, our friends or time just for ourselves. We shouldn’t become so busy that we forget about the people in our lives. Life gives us only so much time and it is quickly fleeting. Whether we are 18 years old or 90, our life has an unknown expiration date. In preparation for that date, I want to make memories that I and those around me can hold onto.

As I learned last week, making memories with your family doesn’t have to involve months or even hours of planning. Spontaneous activities sometimes make for the most memorable of them all. I may be without a truck for a few more days, but it was worth it to have that uninterrupted time with my son. Plus, how often does he get to have an impromptu picnic on top of a truck? That was a first and it’s memories like those that he’ll remember.

Although I’m not wishing for another vehicle break down any time soon, it sure was nice.