I’m sitting here watching my son eat one grain of rice at a time.  Literally.  I knew this dinner was going to be a disaster before I ever even set the table.  My kids don’t like rice.  I love rice.  If meat doesn’t come breaded and fried in the shape of dinosaurs and can’t be dipped in ketchup, they don’t want it.  I made pot roast with vegetables and (dum, dum, dum) rice.  This is not going well.

I promised candy to whoever cleared their plate first.  Yeah, nutritionists, shut it.  As my son dangled an onion in front of his crossed eyes he said, “Mom, I don’t want candy anymore.  Can I be done now?”

Suffering through the meal wasn’t worth the candy.

He’s not off the hook that easy.  Since there are starving children in Somalia and hungry Ethiopian babies suffering tonight, my son is begrudgingly finishing his dinner and wondering aloud, “Mom, what’s an Efiopian?”

A few years ago, one of my closest friends landed what she thought would be her dream career.  The position that she had waited fifteen years for came with a company credit card, a fat paycheck and yearly bonus that equaled my salary.  After three grueling years of kissing up to music’s finest primadonnas and being shuffled all over the world to lay her white hankie over puddles for producers, record companies and publishers, she realized that the candy wasn’t worth the meal.  She was wasting what should be the best years of her life being downright miserable.  Thankfully she resigned before going postal at her office.

So many of us get caught up in making it week to week that we hardly realize how many days, weeks and months have been ticked off on life’s great calendar.  Sure, we all have goals that require sacrifices and we all certainly need to plan ahead.  However, to me it doesn’t make much sense to be so driven toward the goal that you’re watching life in the rearview mirror.  I mean, we’ve all seen so many people busting their butts to save for retirement that have now lost almost every dime in their 401Ks. There are no guarantees.

My husband had one dream for his retirement.  He told me, “Honey, I want to follow the NASCAR circuit in an RV for one full season.”

Thankfully, we didn’t scrimp and save every last penny to start now at saving for the RV and all those race passes.  We enjoyed the meal and saw every race that we absolutely could together.  They will be some of the best memories of my life.  Except that one Bristol race… and maybe Talladega, whoa I was hella sick.

You only live once; but if you live it right, once is enough. 
~Adam Marshall

So… are you enjoying the meal or just pushing toward dessert? 

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