I was rushing around the other day, trying to get things done, when I stopped in my tracks, realizing I was doing the exact thing that I caution others not do do: rush through the day without pausing to enjoy it! Gosh, I thought, I seriously need to take some of my own advice. Then, this title of a poem I wrote 22 years ago flashed in my head. I’d titled it, “I Wish.” I found it, and read it, and was just blown away that these words my (much) younger self had written were so relevant to me today. So, I’m reminding myself, and you, my dear readers, to please, take that advice you’ve been meaning to. Stop and smell the roses. Be with your family. Love those around you. Don’t rush through this gift called life.
I Wish, By Tasha (Bigelow) Standridge, May 1994
Sometimes I wish I’d take some good advice,
or leave my worries behind for someone else,
or capture some rain in a pretty glass jar,
or swing upside-down from a branch in a green tree,
or sit and listen a little to myself,
or look for some gold in the Bible,
or go for a walk just to observe and enjoy the beauty of it all,
or have enough courage to jump from a plane, with a beautiful, billowing parachute,
or leap from a mountaintop strapped to a hang glider,
or perhaps it would be enough to swim in a cool lake on a warm day, and lay on the rocks like a lizard in the sun,
or to watch the waves on a foggy November morning on the northern coast, with their sonorous sounds echoing.
Sometimes I wish I’d take some good advice; then again, there’s a lot of things I wish I’d do.
Positively Tasha 