Do you ever feel like you need to play catch up with your own life? I am feeling that way right now so I am taking tomorrow as a vacation day. After many years of marriage and raising a family I naively thought this would be a slow time in my life. It seems to be busier than ever. As an older person I don't have as much energy as I used to have. At the end of a work day, and it doesn't matter if I worked hard or if I pretended to work hard, I am exhausted. Each day I sit in my parked car and wait for my wife to come out of her office. The whole time my head is bobbing and I'm trying not to go face down on the steering wheel. I've got the air conditioning on high and the rock and roll cranking. Nothing helps. During the day I am fine as long as I keep moving. Once I sit down at the end of the day, it's all over. So, on a normal work night I don't have a lot of activity or demands beyond trying to stay awake long enough to go to bed. Weekends always seem busy instead of being a time to rest and chill out. Sometimes I take care of my granddaughter, sometimes my wife and I take my mother in law out to dinner, and I also try to visit my father in the nursing home. Once a month I have a commitment to go to the monastery. This Saturday I will be attending a picnic with the Archbishop of Louisville and all the local seminarians and their parents. I'm not sure if the Archbishop will actually be the one flipping the burgers and grilling the brats but, hey, it's a meal and I'm sure there will be some great conversation. The best part of me doesn't mind doing all these things. However, there are moments where I am tired of having obligations to fulfill and of meeting other people's expectations. Occasionally I have the thought, "Hey! What about my needs"? So, in a somewhat selfish mode, but without guilt, I am going to take a vacation day tomorrow so I can visit my father, go to the eye doctor, buy some new glasses, run a few personal errands, and perhaps calm my "monkey mind". If I do this tomorrow, I think I can have at least one day free of obligations over the weekend. Maybe then I will go see the new Batman movie or do nothing but stare out the window.
In early September I will be participating in an Alzheimer's Memory Walk and Fundraiser. If I have done this correctly, the following link should take you to my personal web page for donations. As most of you know my father has Alzheimer's and is currently in a nursing home. If you are able, please consider making a donation for Alzheimer's research. It would be greatly appreciated.
https://www.kintera.org/faf/donorReg/donorPledge.asp?ievent=265379&lis=0&kntae265379=FB9281E01F904979B01DB0F54D3FC20B&supId=187985694
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