About a month ago while at the radio station my dear friend and co-worker John Garbutt asked me the following question “How was your weekend”? Not that unusual right? I answer with the classic… “good thanks….blah blah blah, and you”? He then asked me “what was your favourite part”? That is the part that intrigued me. It got me thinking. After pausing for a moment I gave him my answer. It was when my son and I played an impromptu game of hide and seek while shopping with my wife and my youngest son in a department store
I was fascinated that he asked me for one specific part of my weekend. That one detail got me thinking and it lasted for weeks. In fact it has changed a part of my Monday morning routine and hopefully (without getting too dramatic) part of my life. Since this first conversation I’ve made a point over the past four Mondays to reflect on my favorite part of the weekend.
To give it some context, they are the following…
Monday April 29th- Hide and Seek
Monday May 6th-Playing Star Wars
Monday May 13th-Flying a kite for the first time with the kids
Tuesday May 21st (Monday was a holiday so no worky)- Watching the kids slide into a kiddy pool. I even MacGyvered up a garden hose to the slide so it turns into a water slide.
Looking back on the past month I realized that the best part of my weekends are always about the simple little things. It’s never about a major accomplishment, it’s never about sleeping in, it’s never about booking a vacation, it’s never about solving the world’s problems, it’s always about stuff like making pancakes.
I know I’m not telling you something new by trotting out the cliché about the best things in life being free, but that is something that gets lost on me through the daily routine of life.
About a year ago I read an article about a woman who worked with the dying. It was pretty interesting because she wrote a list of the top 5 regrets people say aloud on their deathbed. Although it wasn’t the most uplifting article, I took away a lot from it, and I think most of us can relate to all 5…they are the following…
-I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.
-I wish I didn’t work so hard.
-I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings.
-I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.
-I wish that I had let myself be happier.
A lot of wishing eh?
I know I wish a lot. I also tend to be one of those people who can’t “shut off my mind” and tend not to always “enjoy the moment”. It’s a real challenge for me to do that, another challenge for me is avoiding any food with dill pickle flavour. I’m also the type of person who has to make a joke when it starts to get serious.
All I know is this, ever since I started keeping a weekly log about certain moments in my life, I tend to be IN those certain moments now, know what I mean?
One last thing…I’m so proud of this water slide pool I put together, I had to take a picture to show you. It doesn’t look like much, but the garden hose is a sweet touch
i mean NOT NUDE
garden hose is necessary….or at least make sure they are nude….I don’t want to explain about my son, a slide, no pants…. OUCH
THANK YOU!!!
This is lovely. A “little thing” my brother taught me that he did with his kids was a game called “High/Low”. You go around the table at dinner time and ask everyone the same questions : “What was the highlight of your day? What was lowest part of your day?
It is incredible what the kids will come up with a better question then “how was your day? or how was school?” to get kids talking. It’s especially great after a long weekend or vacation.