All the places, all the things

Recently I've been saying that I can't be at all the places doing all the things. That's a recondition that one has to pick and chose. Anyone who's been faced with a weekend full of various activities in different places knows what that's like.

Of course, I'm not just thinking about a single weekend but life in general. Looking back on my life there are times when I wish I'd done more traveling, especially International traveling. Then again, there are experiences and skills I'd never had learned had I not stayed here in northern New England.

More importantly, marriage and children came early in my life. That changes everything. Those relationships need a person's time and energy. When a lot of my friends were having a good time, I had responsibilities. On the other hand, when they were dealing with younger children, mine were grown and independent. Life has trade offs.

So where is this going? What do I have planned next? I'm really not sure, but there are options. There are always options. Life never became automatic for me. Even when I did the same thing day after day, I'd always wake up and decide that's what I'd do. Once in a while there were times in my life when I'd wake up and decide to move onto something else.

Recently I was reading someone's post in a forum. He was going on and on about how burned out he was. The guy sounded like a world weary 80 years old. At the end he revealed he was at the ripe old age of 50. As a 60 year old, I was surprised and a little disturbed. A closer reading of his post indicated he'd been working so long on a goal that by the time he got close to it, he was no longer all that interested. Sounds to me like he needs to step back and reconsider things.

Right now I'm working my way through my list of things that must get done in the near future. After that, possibilities open up.

-Sixbears