{"id":41,"date":"2016-05-24T18:59:41","date_gmt":"2016-05-24T22:59:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/grownwomanflow.com\/?p=41"},"modified":"2016-05-24T18:59:41","modified_gmt":"2016-05-24T22:59:41","slug":"life-is-too-short","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/grownwomanflow.com\/index.php\/2016\/05\/24\/life-is-too-short\/","title":{"rendered":"Life is too Short"},"content":{"rendered":"

From ever since I can remember, my biggest fear has been losing someone I love, sadly, that fear became a reality on May 22, 2010 when my daddy passed away.\u00a0 That was the most painfully indescribable moment in my life to date. \u00a0I never thought loss could physically hurt but when an unfillable void is created, it\u2019s real and actual pain.\u00a0 I would never wish that type of pain on another person but also understand it will happen to others, it\u2019s life and no one makes it out of life alive.\u00a0 Thru losing half of my beginning, I learned how absolutely short and precious life truly is.\u00a0 I also learned I hadn\u2019t been living<\/strong> the life I was blessed with.<\/p>\n

The majority of us go thru life day to day merely existing by taking care of children, spouses, bills and working. Somewhere in there, we may take a vacation here or there but then it\u2019s back to the grind and that day to day existence.\u00a0 I watched my daddy take vacations, go out and have a good time, he always had a smile on his face and love in his heart.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t until I lost him did I realize I had rarely ever genuinely smiled, took everything personally and to heart, and just took life itself so seriously I seemed to walk around in a bad mood.\u00a0 I don\u2019t wish that existence on anyone but, unfortunately, I watch just about everyone I know exist in that manner in some form or other more often than not. We spend so much time working and worrying about providing an extravagant life for our family, we never take the time to get to know and enjoy them.\u00a0 Sure you may have a high paying job which enables you to give your family a great lifestyle but what does it matter if you have no time to spend with them because you\u2019re always working to ensure that lifestyle is maintained?\u00a0 Your babies won\u2019t be babies for very long, your parents\/grandparents won’t live forever, your friends won’t always be here and neither will you, you can\u2019t get those days back.<\/p>\n

We are a society so concerned with, not only keeping up with the Joneses but constantly trying to surpass them which, in turn, makes us work that much harder outside of the home and away from family.\u00a0 We miss many family gatherings because we are working.\u00a0 I\u2019m a simple woman, I don\u2019t need top of the line, named brand everything to be happy.\u00a0 Do I like nice things? Of course but I like laughing and being silly with my daughters more.\u00a0 I enjoy spending the day with my sister just chilling at her house on the deck with a bottle or few of wine.\u00a0 Spending a Friday night with my daughters watching movies we\u2019ve seen multiple times while eating pizza and just joking around is my idea of heaven. I won\u2019t get these days back so I take them in as often as I can.\u00a0 One day, all my daughters will have are memories of me and I do what I can to make them the best I can while I can.\u00a0 I want my daughters to have memories of the trips we take to the zoo and museums, just spending time together not that I was never there because I was always working to give them the latest fashions and shoes, material things don\u2019t create lasting memories.<\/p>\n

We always think we have time to do this or that but, unfortunately, it\u2019s not our plan that takes the actions, it\u2019s GOD\u2019s plan in HIS timing, not ours.\u00a0 I know I\u2019ve said many times, \u201cOh, I\u2019ll go see so & so next weekend, I just don\u2019t feel like it today\u201d and that next weekend never comes because I get so pre-occupied with my own things I just never make it, feeling as though I have an unlimited amount of time.\u00a0 The sad reality is, when you put off going to see someone you care about, next weekend is never promised.\u00a0 The knowledge that tomorrow is never promised is why I try to keep on at least decent terms with those I care about because I don\u2019t want the last interaction I had with them to be a negative or nasty one.\u00a0 To know the last time I spoke to my friend we had an argument and now they\u2019re gone? There\u2019s no way I can make that right, there\u2019s no way I can say \u201cI\u2019m sorry\u201d or \u201cI love you\u201d and that will weigh on me for the rest of my life.<\/p>\n

Over the last several years, I\u2019ve become a very patient and attentive listener because I rarely had one in my life and would never want someone I care about to experience the feeling of either not being heard or understood or as though their feelings didn\u2019t matter.\u00a0 I have also learned to speak up when I feel tension even if I don\u2019t know what is wrong, I speak on it because life is too short to worry and wonder why a wall is being built between me and someone I care about.\u00a0 The unfortunate aspect of this is other people would rather walk around stewing in their own anger and animosity throwing dirt on your name and character to others than to open their mouths and say \u201cYou hurt me when you\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u2026\u201d to enable the conversation can progress from there.\u00a0 Do I understand things don\u2019t always work out?\u00a0 Yes, I do but I also believe that nothing beats a failure but a try.\u00a0 If I don\u2019t try to communicate, I\u2019m just as guilty as the other person and a good relationship dies for a petty, sometimes unknown, reason.\u00a0 I also understand sometimes things weren\u2019t supposed to work out, sometimes it was just a lesson I\u00a0needed to learn.\u00a0 Maybe you needed to learn to confront people when they have wronged you or maybe you needed to learn how to communicate your feelings to finally be heard.\u00a0 You won\u2019t get the message at first but in time, it will click.\u00a0 There\u2019s no need for childish grudges, we are adults and need to begin to act as such.<\/p>\n

I am guilty of not spending time with those I love, I can\u2019t and won\u2019t make excuses, I\u2019ll just own that I don\u2019t do it as often as I should.\u00a0 While I loved my daddy with every fiber of my being, I took for granted he would always be here because heroes never die, right?\u00a0 It took him getting sick for me to fully grasp the reality of how limited our time here on earth is.\u00a0 I refuse to wait until someone is sick before I make the effort to spend time with them, I won\u2019t get them back once they are gone and there are many people in my life I deem irreplaceable, as I know you do.<\/p>\n

The one thing I know for sure is I don\u2019t want to leave this earth with a bucket list or wondering \u201cwhat if\u201d.\u00a0 Now, don\u2019t get me wrong, I\u2019m not jumping out of plane or climbing Mt. Everest but I will go out and enjoy myself, no longer being the wallflower too shy to actually enjoy and experience that moment in my life.\u00a0 It\u2019s okay to act a little crazy every now and then, you\u2019re grown.\u00a0 I\u2019ve held back far too long for fear of naysayers judging me and worrying about what everyone else thinks\u00a0of me.\u00a0 I\u2019ve been so concerned with pleasing everyone else with my actions I never truly got to know myself, I didn\u2019t even like myself but I tried to make sure everyone else was happy never realizing I deserved to be happy. \u00a0I make sure I speak up when there\u2019s tension between myself and another person because I don\u2019t want the \u201cwhat if\u201d looming over my head, I\u2019m a constant thinker and will drive myself crazy with scenarios that could be so far from reality but seem real to me.\u00a0 It is my<\/strong> responsibility as an adult to communicate as an adult and not just cease communication when I get in my feelings.\u00a0 Sometimes, that communication is not going to happen immediately because the situation is heated and cooler heads need to prevail in order for it to be effective and that may take a few days.<\/p>\n

My point in all of this is life is too short<\/strong> to be anything but happy.\u00a0 If you had a disagreement with someone, squash it, you may never be the friends you used to be but you can leave this earth knowing you tried and the\u00a0air is clear.\u00a0 If you aren\u2019t close with family anymore due to a misunderstanding or miscommunication, reach out, you never know, they may miss you more than you do them.\u00a0 Take that vacation!\u00a0 Buy that sexy little black dress and find somewhere to wear it!\u00a0 That cute guy you\u2019ve been drooling over from afar all this time?\u00a0 Talk to him because he\u2019s probably been checking you out too but could be too shy to say anything or be intimidated by your beauty.\u00a0 While life is too short it\u2019s also about choices and you have to choose to step out on faith to get that new job or new car.\u00a0 If you step out on faith and start to enjoy and appreciate the life that HE has blessed you with, I promise you, HE\u2019s got you every step of the way.\u00a0 Don\u2019t wait to make things right, tomorrow may not come.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From ever since I can remember, my biggest fear has been losing someone I love, sadly, that fear became a reality on May 22, 2010 when my daddy passed away.\u00a0 That was the most painfully indescribable moment in my life to date. \u00a0I never thought loss could physically hurt but when an unfillable void is … Continue reading “Life is too Short”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":42,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7va7x-F","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/grownwomanflow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/Never-waste-a-moment.jpg?fit=438%2C444&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/grownwomanflow.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/grownwomanflow.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/grownwomanflow.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grownwomanflow.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grownwomanflow.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/grownwomanflow.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44,"href":"https:\/\/grownwomanflow.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41\/revisions\/44"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grownwomanflow.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/grownwomanflow.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grownwomanflow.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grownwomanflow.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}