Use It Or–

Yesterday I drove down past the airport (wonderful to get out of the house for a moment even though I was just in my car), and I noticed there were cars parked everywhere. The cars were parked bumper to bumper and side to side and were covered with dust.  I imagine they had been there quite a while, probably since March when everything shut down. I am amazed at how many rental cars there are on Maui! And with no tourists on the island, the cares just sit there. The cars in this picture are in the dirt next to the Costco parking lot.

Ron had a Saturn Outlook that he just loved. It’s a really big car, so I don’t really like to drive it. I tried to drive it every once in a while, or loan it to a friend, but I didn’t do it often enough and I had to replace the battery, twice. I have finally come to terms that I don’t have to keep it just because it was Ron’s, so I am selling it to a friend. When I saw these cars yesterday, I wondered if any of them are going to start when the time comes that tourists can come back to the island of Maui.

I’ve always heard that if you don’t use something, you lose it.  That certainly happened to me when I didn’t drive Ron’s car. And I notice that it’s harder to get up and moving if I have only been sitting for a long while. Our bodies are meant to be used, as are our minds. When grieving, lots of times it is easier to sit, to stay home, to veg out on television, and a certain amount of this is fine. But in grieving, it is easy to get used to sitting in the same chair, binge watching a television show that doesn’t mean anything to us and allow our precious time to slip through our fingers.

Where are you in life right now? What do you want to do or accomplish this week, this year, this lifetime? Take some time to explore this. I know with both Ron and Jacques, though I knew they were ill, it seemed like they would always be there; then they weren’t. What recognizing this taught me is to leave nothing unsaid, unexperienced, or undone that I aimed to do before I couldn’t anymore. Because of this, I now do whatever I desire. My friends and I often say, “I love you.” I know none of them will wonder about my feelings for them when I am not here to tell them.  If I want Ben and Jerry’s Chunkie Monkey, I savor every bite.  If I want to take a class or write a book, I do just that.

I live each moment as if it were my only moment with no regrets.  I encourage you to do that, too. If you don’t do it, you may not get to.  Live full out with positivity, love, and joy!