Tag Archives: regrets

January 7, 2011 · 5:00 am

Soak It Up.

I have a lot of Big Mama stories.  As a matter of fact, every time I talk to her, she says something that bears repeating.  Her unintentional lessons are to my blog posts what Anna Takle’s…well, what any of Anna’s shenanigans are to my entries. 

I called her yesterday after I posted.  I didn’t tell her my post was about her.  She will find out soon enough by one of you.  And, she will tell me, “I heard you’ve been putting me up on that computer!”  She will laugh cautiously then ask me to show the post to her.

After our phone conversation, thoughts of her raced into my mind for the rest of the day.  Even into the night as I lay in bed rereading yesterday’s blog, my thoughts were of her.  How I love being with her and talking to her.  And, how I love repeating the things she says to me. 

I’m not sure how many more years I have to enjoy this incredible lady.  So, I started pondering questions I’ve never asked her.  Stories I’ve never heard.

I want to ask them.  I want to hear it all.  I don’t want to say, “I wish I would have asked her…..”

 Of course, she did recently ask me if she could have my “great big colorful painting” should she outlive me.  She was serious.  I told her yes. 

Who do you need to spend more time with in your life?  What questions do you want to ask him or her?  What stories do you want to hear? 

Maybe it’s the person lying next to you right now.  Maybe it’s that sweet little girl down the hall from you.  The friend who lives two miles from you that you only see or talk to a few times a year. 

Maybe it’s the father who shares a very different view of life from you, so you keep your distance from him.  Or the sister you’re not close to anymore.

I don’t know.  I just know I want to soak up the moments with the people in my life more now than ever.  So, if tomorrow never comes, they know.  Thank  you, Garth Brooks.

And, thank you all for being a part of my life. 

Have a great weekend.

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June 26, 2008 · 7:00 am

Do Over.


Remember when you were a kid playing one of those recess games, and someone would yell, “DO OVER!”  And, usually he got his do-over?  Life’s not always so simple.  There have been many circumstances in my twenty-three thirty-three years I wish I could do over. 

Like the time I told my parents I was going to see Driving Miss Daisy with friends, and I cruised up and down Taylor Street instead.  My mom asked me which theater the movie was playing in….smart little booger….. “the left theater, center theater or right theater?” 

“The, the, the left!” I answered.

How could I not know it was the center?  After all, the movie was filmed in my hometown.  Why wouldn’t it take center stage?  I wish I could do that one over.  It would have saved me two weeks of grounding.

I’d also like a do-over on the time I colored my hair orange, my last speeding ticket, and probably the chips and queso I ate yesterday.  Oh, who am I kidding?  I’d so eat the chips and queso again today.

Point is, we all have something in life we’d like to get a do-over on.  For most of us, they are not things as trivial as mentioned above.  We’d like a do-over on a friendship, a marriage, a job – you know what I’m talkin’ about.  And, while we can’t get do-over’s on those things, we do get a do-over every day with God. 

Many people think we serve a God who stands over us with a giant rock, ready to crush it on our little heads.  A God whose wrath is fierce.  A God who positions Himself to punish His children at a moment’s notice. 

That’s not Him. 

At the second we ask Him to create a clean heart in us, He does.  He is a God who loves.  A God who forgives.  We don’t have to earn it.  We don’t have to work for it.  The price has already been paid.  He freely gives, we freely receive.

I get a do-over every morning.  I’m glad I do.  I need it.

Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.  Lamentations 3:22-23

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