Sunday, August 05, 2007

Let's get this straight.

Lifes priorities-have you got yours figured out yet?
Mine seem to change every couple of years, but I always seem to have the same priotities and just shuffle them around in order of importance. Money, career, lifestyle, relationship, children. Not necessarily in that order, in fact that's probably the only order they've never been in.
Right now, I'm sitting on the beach, looking out to sea with the suns warmth upon me and I know that I'm in the midst of another change.
For the last 2 and a half years the top priorities in my life have been career and money, and do you know what? It has made me thoroughly miserable. I've missed my kids so much. I've missed the feeling of relaxation and peace that I feel right here and now when I look out to sea and hear the waves break the shore. I've missed going to bed at night knowing that I'd spent the day doing what makes both my children and I happy. I've missed my friends. I can't do it any more. So I've resigned.
Ok, there's also the fact that I've been diagnosed bi-polar to take into consideration. That and the fact that my symptoms are a tad out of control at the moment. Another good reason for sitting back and taking stock of life and what I want and need from it.
What I want and need is to know that when I close my eyes for the last time, I can be content in the knowledge that I've done my best. That I've done my best by my children and importantly, that I've done my best for myself. That I've savored and cherished life and its sensations and experiences.
So I'm changing my priorities and right at the top come my family and myself. The career can take a nose-dive and I'll happily wave to it as it passes me by. And we'll sort the money out as we always do. And next time I sit here my children can sit next to me and look out to sea and I'll know -i've got my priorities right.
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1 comment:

john matthews said...

perhaps the only thing we can change is ourselves i have been trying to change the world in a small way through politics and now wonder whether i have missed something far more important trouble is i do not know what that something is