More or Less - November 2016

I've been thinking more about the past lately because I'm realizing I have more time behind me and less time ahead of me.  Today is the 50th anniversary of when my husband and I first laid eyes on each other.  I was 16 and he was 20. I had no idea that day he'd ask me out later in the week and that I'd fall in love with him.  Seven months later I moved out of state with my parents.  We almost didn't meet.  This got me to thinking about my Hungarian grandparents and how they met.  This was their wedding day in 1920. . . .

He'd emigrated to America in 1906.  Her parents had come in the 1890's.  In 1917 he was on his way to fight in WWI in the Cavalry, but the war ended before he got there or else he may never have gotten back home.  In 1920 she was 17 and he was 34.  I gaze into her eyes and know what awaits her, but on her wedding day she does not know my mother would be born 9 ½ months later, that she'd have a second daughter and two sons and that the second daughter would die from diphtheria at age 6.  She didn't know then that a depression would force her husband to stand in bread lines and that in 1931 he'd disappear for three days when the twin daughters were born because he now had five children to feed, nor that he would die from black lung disease when the twins were 10.   My grandmother eventually remarried, but only after her children had all grown and had lives of their own.  The last 22 years of her life she was once again a widow after my step-grandfather died in 1966.

We so often believe, especially when we are young, that we are in charge of our destiny.  To a certain extent, we can choose our careers, who we want to marry, where we want to live.  But there is much in life that can affect our choices--the Great Depression and wars, for instance, and other circumstances beyond our control.  And when you are young you don't have the wisdom that comes with life's experiences.  It's very easy to look back now and wish I'd done a few things differently.  In the end, however, I do feel I did the best I could with the information I had at hand.

My parents and grandparents never sat me down and tried to impart their wisdom to me.  Whatever I learned I learned from observing them and what I learned is that I wanted a different kind of life than they had.  I wonder if that's what happens with every generation.  Even if they'd tried to talk to me I may not have listened for I really thought I knew what was best for me.  Youth!

No matter how old you are NOW you probably still have some time left to do SOMETHING that you wish you'd done sooner.  It may be to live in a different part of the country, visit a foreign country, learn another language, or something as simple as to start writing in a daily journal, take up a hobby, or start a daily exercise routine.  Or it could be something rather grand like the 99-year-old woman who got a college degree!  There is a website called Late Bloomer where you can read about people who switched careers or started learning a new skill late in life.  Check out Debra Eve's website to see what a person can do if they have a passion.

So my question to you this month is this:   Is there something you've always wanted to do but think is too late to do?  Why don't you tell us so we can encourage you to give it a try anyway.  You may have to modify it a bit--for instance if you never had children or grandchildren and wish you had, perhaps you can "borrow" some children in your extended family to take under your wing and nurture.  And if  you have less money than you need, there's always Kickstarter.  It's time to quit making excuses!  You may have more to say in your destiny than you realize.....

P.S. Here is the rest of my grandparents' wedding photo. . . .

.•*¨`*•. ☆ .•*¨`*•

Take Joy!