Smile

The great philosopher has said:

“Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened.”
― Dr. Seuss

That's a tough one for me. I have just finished a two-week vacation in the warmth and sun (all relative of course to my home of Minnesota in February). I have had this "tradition" our entire married life that as we come to the end of a vacation I put on my best (or worst) hangdog look, crumple up my lips and whine:

I don't want to go home.

I did that this past week, right on schedule, to which my wife always responds:

That's it. No more.

I don't listen, of course. I do it once or twice each day- and even as we travel. Often a great sadness seems to fall over me as I reflect that this time will never be again.
It has been fun to be free and easy-going.


No work to go to.
No schedule to follow.
Read, write, eat,
watch the sunsets,
and probably eat some more.


I know life can't be like that 24/7. I know I would probably fall into a deeper funk if I never had anything to do. I would find something to schedule, some new poem to write, a new story to fashion, pictures to take and edit.


But good old Dr. Seuss, one of my true heroes. Don't cry- smile, he tells me. You have a choice, I am being reminded. You can ruin the days ahead by wishing the days past were still here. Or, you can build tomorrow on the joys of today.

He's right of course. And that reminder came to me when I needed it. Stay in today. This is the one you have. Enjoy it while celebrating the past and getting ready for the transforming joy of tomorrow.





Here's another way of saying it, thanks to Karen Salmansohn on Facebook:






PS: Then there was the trip home. In early March!
First: we had snow showers from northern Mississippi near Memphis all the way to near St. Louis. Snow showers! Bah!

Second: We get to central Iowa and there's snow on the ground that was not there when we went south two weeks ago- in February. Humbug!

Third: A Winter Storm Watch is posted for home from Sunday night through Tuesday! A Winter Storm Watch? For 6 - 10 inches of snow! It's March. Bah Humbug!