"Most Creative Driver of the class of 2000"
When my son Matt was in high school, we shared my car. My parents let me use one of the family cars as much as I wanted, when I got my license (at 16 ), and I remembered the fantastic feeling of freedom driving out of our driveway, picking up 3 or 4 friends, and heading off, at some un-godly speed, on an “adventure”. If my parents had only known what we were up to, they would have fainted.
When Matt started driving, on more than one occasion, the car would be returned with clods of mud …on the roof! I asked him how in the world mud could get on the roof and he always acted like he was surprised too; “I don’t know mom! I am really careful with the car!” he would say, looking at me with those big, brown innocent eyes. When his yearbook came out, there was a special page for Most Creative this and that …he won, “Most Creative Driver”.
Matt was, and still is, an adventurous spirit…. not the easiest sort of kid to raise if you are prone to worry. The older I get, the more I realize the damage of worry. It causes tension in relationships, and does not prevent one bad thing from happening. If I could have changed one thing about my past, it would have been that I was more present, less projecting of negative thought (worry) into the future, I would have just sat down with my sons and appreciated them more…I didn’t know how fast time would go…they are 29 and 33 now. How did that happen?!
Both of my sons are still adventurous men….I hope that I had a little to do with that.
“Life is a daring adventure or nothing!” Helen Keller
P.S. Ingrid from the Netherlands won the earrings!
Ugh, how much time have I lost to worry? I hate to think… Honestly, probably a full half, possibly two-thirds, of my waking life. That’s a sad realization. It’s so much a part of me – my worry, my anxiety, my fear – that I don’t think I know how to *be* without it. Oh my goodness, I just realized… I’m afraid to be without fear! Okay, yeah, I wanna go back to bed now…
Congrats to Ingrid!
Every day in every way I’m getting better and better.
Good morning Mary! This post really resonates with me today. I have a 20 year old son who is first of all a really excellent human being, that being said,he has caused me much worry over his lifetime. part of me knows it is foolish to worry, but that mom thing just gets in the way of just being present with him. I am reading a great novel by Jonathan Safran Foer called ” Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close” about a boy with Asperger’s. This nine yr old boy is narrating the story and he remind me so much of my son as a young boy, it is amazing. I wish I had worried less about him being “normal” and just embraced his uniqueness. I am better about this now, but worry does creep in, so thanks for the reminder of just being present with our loved one’s and helping me to realize some of things we let worry are in fact a true gift from God.
Thanks so much for this post Mary. Exactly what I needed to hear TODAY. Funny how that works, isn’t it?
Another great quote and good reminder, thanks.
I truly appreciate your comments about worry–the damagage it causes while preventing nothing.
Thanks,
Christa
So happy for Ingrid in the Netherlands! Mary, you are our ambassador of international goodwill! And isn’t worry sort of like a car frantically spinning its wheels in the mud? Gets you nowhere, and yet it burns and consumes precious energy that could be directed in a positive way. Thanks for the reminder. Have a wonderful and worry free weekend, all! Susan
I love Helen Keller – she was one of my hero’s – that is one of my favorite quotes, I often quote her. Thanks Mary for reminding us to let go of worry (useless) and think positive! Seems so simple to do and yet at times so difficult!
My husband tells me if we had a nickel for every time I worry needlessly (and isn’t it all useless?) that we’d be filthy rich right now. And I wasn’t even aware how often I went to that fretful place until I started sitting, meditating and watching those ‘thought clouds’ go drifting by. I love Susan’s analogy of spinning wheels stuck in mud—I’m going to hold that visual when I catch myself next time.
Yay for Ingrid; hope she sends a photo showing them off!!
Haha, Wonderful memories! You gave me a good deal of freedom but I still knew I had to follow your rules….. If you only knew the full potential of that Subaru! Thanks Mom.