The Things We Do

I just read a short blurb by Richard Branson. Now let me make this very clear. I am not a big fan of his. Okay, truth be told, I wouldn’t mind having some of his money and how about that hair. However in the blurb he says, and I quote; “If I were 22, I would be out working hard, playing hard and having the time of my life. Hang on, what's the difference between 22 and 63?” What a great thought.

How often do I get caught up in the past and what might have been and forget to live my life? Sorry, didn’t mean to ask you that question. I suspect anyone that reads my blurbs will suggest the answer to the question is, far too often. As humans we seem to have this innate desire to blame everything on the past and then we forget to live.

Sometimes I even forget the fact that I am living and that there are good thing happening in life. A friend asked me this morning how my weekend had been. My first inclination was to respond by saying it was a weekend. Why would I say anything else? After all my mind was consumed by challenges in my life.

When I finally did respond it went like this. I golfed Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Twice with friends from the community and once with my daughter’s boyfriend. Saturday our grandson came over to spend the night. Sunday morning the kids all came over for brunch cooked by our daughter. Monday I built a coffee table with my daughter. What the heck. I had an awesome weekend.

You heard me right. I built a coffee table. My daughter had found some wood that she thought would look good as a coffee table top. Add to that a naivety about her father’s carpentry skills and we have a project. Okay, truth be told, there is another part to this story. I tried to find every excuse in the book to get out of doing this. No excuse worked. And then my daughter used the ultimate tool. Guilt. Manipulation by guilt. My mother would have been proud. My daughter commented on how often I had taken her brothers golfing but never done anything for her. So in her opinion it was a done deal. At that point whether I had the skills to do this or not, it was going to happen.

Now you must know that I do have certain carpentry skills. I have built some things in my life. However you must also understand that if there was not a chainsaw around I would not even consider starting the project. A chainsaw was a necessity. And quite useful I might add. For coffee tables, not so much.

It did happen. I came to understand that with a little planning, which only involved three trips to Home Depot, a great deal of patience and lots of encouragement from my wife and daughter, I did have the ability to complete the project. It was fun. It turned out okay. Perhaps this can become a new career for me. Building furniture.

Don’t place your orders just yet. I think I need some practice. Perhaps even a diagram. Last night as I was reveling in what I had accomplished I realized we had forgotten an important piece. However the consensus was that it looked good, no further work required. Any flaws there were would get covered by paint. Works for me. Mission accomplished. Make it a good one.