{"id":114,"date":"2018-05-12T19:55:29","date_gmt":"2018-05-12T19:55:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/awalkinthewoods\/?p=114"},"modified":"2018-05-12T20:23:01","modified_gmt":"2018-05-12T20:23:01","slug":"light-from-many-lamps-enjoy-yourself-it-is-later-than-you-think","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/awalkinthewoods\/light-from-many-lamps-enjoy-yourself-it-is-later-than-you-think\/","title":{"rendered":"Light From Many Lamps – Enjoy Yourself: It is Later Than You Think"},"content":{"rendered":"

“Well, maybe it is<\/em> later than you think; why don’t you do something about it?” (Dr. Frederic Loomis, 1938)<\/h3>\n

I couldn’t stop thinking about this story after I read it. \u00a0It felt like it was written specifically for me as a reminder to live my life in the present, and to not keep putting my hopes and dreams off until the future. Both my Dad and my Father In Law passed away at a time in their lives when they had planned to do all of those things that they had put off for so long due to busy careers and the tasks and costs associated with \u00a0growing families. They never had the opportunity to enjoy some of the rewards that they had earned.<\/p>\n

Dr. Loomis (1938) in Lillian Eichler Watson’s\u00a0Light from Many Lamps\u00a0<\/em>shares that;<\/p>\n

“Many years have been added to the average expectation of life but each individual’s fate is still a hazard. The most valuable people around us have lived largely for others. This seems the time to remind them that they will have more years, and happier ones, to do good for others if they start right now to do something for themselves; to go places and to do things which they have looked forward to for years; to give those who love them the happiness of seeing them enjoy some of the rewards which they have earned; to replace competition with a bit of contemplation. (Watson, 1988, p. 27)”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

On a personal note, \u00a0saying yes to opportunities that solely benefit myself, isn’t an easy thing for me to do. \u00a0I \u00a0married my high school sweetheart and wholeheartedly lived 25 years of my life putting my spouse and my two children first. \u00a0When my marriage fell apart three years ago, I was gutted and at a complete loss. I struggled with rediscovering who I am. \u00a0I had identified myself solely as a wife and mom for so many years. Even with two grown children, I felt guilty about putting myself first or doing anything to reward myself. \u00a0Shonda Rhimes book, The Year of Yes<\/em> (2015) was a great read and I made a pact with myself that I needed to say yes to opportunities more when they present themselves. \u00a0As reminded by Dr. Loomis (1938) it is important to go places and do things that we have looked forward to for years, and if we actually take the time to do these things for ourselves in turn we will be providing more happiness and joy to those who we continue to serve both personally and professionally.<\/p>\n

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My Dream Board<\/p><\/div>\n

I created a dream board two years ago that hangs on my bathroom wall. It is a reminder to me each morning as I get ready of what I would like to do and who I would like to become as a person. \u00a0On my dream board are several beautiful photos of Italy, a place I have always wanted to explore. Much to my surprise and delight,\u00a0I was recently presented with the opportunity to travel to Europe this summer on free airline points. Despite the photos on my dream board (that I have looked at for two years straight) \u00a0my immediate gut reaction was; “No way, I can’t do that. I have 2 kids, an elderly mom and a dog to look after. I’ve just started my Masters and I don’t think I can even afford to go …etc.,” The reality is that my kids are older and will be well looked after as will my mom and dog. \u00a0Just like Dr. Frederic Loomis’ medical practice in his story, my family world also will not stop spinning and fall apart \u00a0if I go Italy. \u00a0I know that ultimately, I would regret it if I didn’t go. \u00a0Thanks Dr. Loomis and Shonda Rhimes for confirming for me that I need to say yes and go! Look out Europe! Here I come!<\/p>\n

W. Beran Wolfe declared that,\u00a0“One important source of unhappiness is the habit of putting off living to some fictional future date (Watson, 1988, p.29”. \u00a0I don’t want to keep putting off my dreams and miss out on the many opportunities that life has to offer. \u00a0Time really is a gift and one that none of us knows the quantity of. \u00a0The time is now for me to pursue my dreams of travel, getting my Masters and pursuing educational leadership opportunities. As Loomis (1938) says,”Well, maybe it is<\/em><\/strong> later than you think; why don’t you do something about it? (Watson, 1988, p.25)”<\/p>\n

‘Why don’t you<\/strong><\/em> do something about it?’ is a great leadership question! If there is something that we don’t like or something we want to do, what’s stopping us from getting it done? Who or what are we waiting for?<\/p>\n

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Eichler Watson, L.E. (1988). Light from Many Lamps<\/em>, (1st Fireside Edition). New York, NY: Simon & Schuster, Inc.<\/p>\n

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“Well, maybe it is later than you think; why don’t you do something about it?” (Dr. Frederic Loomis, 1938) I couldn’t stop thinking about this story after I read it. \u00a0It felt like it was written specifically for me as a reminder to live my life in the present, and to not keep putting my […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":262,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,16,1,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-114","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ldrs500","category-light-from-many-lamps","category-twu-online","category-unit-2","post-preview"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/awalkinthewoods\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/awalkinthewoods\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/awalkinthewoods\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/awalkinthewoods\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/awalkinthewoods\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/awalkinthewoods\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":124,"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/awalkinthewoods\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114\/revisions\/124"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/awalkinthewoods\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/awalkinthewoods\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/create.twu.ca\/awalkinthewoods\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}