I have decided that I should be more curious about the future. Most of the time I only worry about it.
I worry about the Shepkids becoming healthy
and happy adults. I worry about the end of my career and what retirement will
look like. I worry about my health and how comfortable the next twenty years
will be.
I need to replace some of that worrying
with curiosity.
Instead of worrying about how everything is
going to turn out, maybe I should be curious to see how it does.
Yesterday, I celebrated twenty years of
being a parent.
It was twenty years ago that the entire
maternity ward heard me yell…
“Terese, the baby has a penis! A
penis! We have a baby boy!”
A voice built for booming bids across a
trading floor wasn't exactly what the nursing station found helpful.
Though they did compliment me on the way I
announced the arrival of George Edward Shepley into the world. Apparently,
through all their years of delivering babies, nobody had ever quite phrased it
that way.
Twenty years later, I am curious to see how
that baby boy will continue to grow and where his life takes him.
I will tell you what I am not
curious about.
Everything Fox News, CNN and the BBC are
talking about. I am not curious about any of that bullshit that I cannot
control.
Politics will continue to swing back and
forth. Taxes will continue to eat at my wallet. Hatred will somehow continue to
get top billing over love.
The world will keep doing what the world
does.
Maybe I should spend less time worrying about
all of that and more time being curious about the things happening right in
front of me.
Well… it is another Monday and I won’t mind
if it is ordinary.
The Sox have already won more games this
year than they did in each of the last three seasons. I am curious to see how
this ends up.
School starts this week for my two
redheads. Senior year and eighth grade. Two milestones that once seemed
impossibly far away are suddenly here. I am curious to see how this year works
out for them.
Last week, I chalked about our last eight
o'clock sunset. This week, I'm a tad sad
that I have to chalk sunrises after six o'clock in the morning.
For a morning person, that one stings a
little more, but I suppose that is part of being curious. Getting another
chance at seeing how the day plays out.
The days get shorter, the kids get older, careers
eventually wind down, and bodies change. Seasons turn whether we are ready for
them or not.
We can worry about what is waiting around
the corner, or we can walk around the corner and see. Only the curious
have something to find.
Avoid the raindrops of mid-August and shake
that tail.
