I was reminded of an important lesson recently. I had some friends from Utah that came to New York on vacation; they only had one full day to spend in the city before they headed to Connecticut. There is so much to do here, but they realized that their time was brief, so they decided they would limit their activities to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, and then end the day by going to the Met Museum. They invited me to go and I looked at my schedule and I had a few things that I needed to get done, but I decided that I would go with them. To be honest, part of me thought that I should focus on my to-do list and go to those places another day; after all, I’m going to be in the city for several more months. But the part of me that wanted to go won and I headed down to Battery Park.
It was such a beautiful day! The sun was out, there was a light breeze coming in from the water, there was a smell of honey-roasted nuts floating around the park (from the street vendors), there was a collage of people walking around, and a symphony of different languages and accents dancing through the air. Before I met up with my friends I just had to stand and soak up the day.
My friends had arrived at Battery Park before me and bought my ticket for the ferry ride. I found them in the long line that was stretching through the park. As we progressed down the long line, I made some friends with people standing next to us. There were two delightful women from England. Their names were Beryl and Janet. They were so much fun!! I never figured out if they were sisters or just close friends, but whatever their relationship was, you could tell that they were close. They told me that they were on a little adventure together; they listed off the places that they had been to in the past and laughed between themselves as they recounted some of their experiences. There was another guy that I met in line. He was Greek and he told all sorts of things about his life in Greece. He told me that the parties there are great ha ha! I busted up laughing at one point when he was talking because Janet looked at me with a smile on her face, and in her thick English accent said ‘you can tell this guy is fond of the drink’ ha ha!
When we went through security they made Beryl and Janet take off of their jewelry and belts to go through the scanners. My two friends were very well dressed and it took them awhile to take off all of their accessories. When they cleared through the scanners, they just grabbed their things and walked up the ramp into the boat. Beryl got her shoes, belts, etc on pretty quickly, but Janet was having a time of it. The boat was rocking so she was having a hard time keeping her balance. Beryl and Janet were laughing so hard. Janet stopped dressing for a second and started looking for something in her purse; between gasping for air between her laughs Beryl told me ‘she’s lookin’ fo anotha tablet!’ Janet gets motion sick so she was fishing through her purse for another pill, ha ha! As Janet stood there hobbling around with one shoe on, two belts in her one hand, and a handful of jewelry in the other, bags in both, laughing to herself, another woman standing next to her starred at Janet. This woman’s face looked like it was saying “what is this lady doing!” Janet looked up and saw the lady, so she started talking her. She had a very thick accent and her laughter was very contagious, but this other woman wouldn’t crack a smile. It didn’t bother Janet, she was on a mission to get herself put together. She was cinching her belt on and the woman who was starring turned to her husband and started speaking in a different language. Beryl died laughing! Janet had been trying to have a conversation with a woman that didn’t speak any English; Beryl laughed out loud saying ‘that woman is a foreigner’. I had such a great time with them!
These two wonderful women loved life, they went on adventures together, and enjoyed the human experience. I asked them what their families at home thought of their adventures and they told me that their husbands, children, grandchildren thought that it was great. I totally agree.
The Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island was great I’ll have to write more about that experience in another post. When we were done with the islands we went uptown and ate at a great pizza place “Pie by the Pound”. We sat on a table that was on the sidewalk and I just looked down the street at all the tall buildings. Great food, a nice view, and good company.
My friends decided to go to the Museum for a little bit before they headed back to their hotel for the evening. The bulk of our time was spent at the island, so I said my good-byes and went home to finish my to-dos before it got too late.
The lesson that I was reminded of from my dear friends Beryl and Janet is the importance of having adventures and doing them now. I have been in the city for a few months now, and I’ve loved it, but I really haven’t done a lot of things that people come to New York for. I keep telling myself that I will get to them, but the days seem to slip by. I couldn’t help but think of my Utah friends’ situation; if I only had one day what would I do? I wonder how many of those days we have let slip by. The funny thing is that all of the “to-dos” that almost kept me from going all got done. I think that the “to-do” side of us worries that we won’t get things accomplished if we take time to feed the adventure part of our souls. I’m discovering that is not the case.
On a bigger scale: if you only had one life, what would you do? I’ve heard people say that we should live each day as if it were our last. I’m beginning to understand what that means. I don’t think it means that we should push off every responsibility we have and just go on adventures everyday (though that it is important to do sometimesJ); rather, I think it is saying that we make our everyday life an adventure. Take a different route to work, meet someone new, stop by the desk of the person you pass every day, really look at the flowers, breath, soak up the sun, walk, laugh out loud . . . live in the moment.
It was such a beautiful day! The sun was out, there was a light breeze coming in from the water, there was a smell of honey-roasted nuts floating around the park (from the street vendors), there was a collage of people walking around, and a symphony of different languages and accents dancing through the air. Before I met up with my friends I just had to stand and soak up the day.
My friends had arrived at Battery Park before me and bought my ticket for the ferry ride. I found them in the long line that was stretching through the park. As we progressed down the long line, I made some friends with people standing next to us. There were two delightful women from England. Their names were Beryl and Janet. They were so much fun!! I never figured out if they were sisters or just close friends, but whatever their relationship was, you could tell that they were close. They told me that they were on a little adventure together; they listed off the places that they had been to in the past and laughed between themselves as they recounted some of their experiences. There was another guy that I met in line. He was Greek and he told all sorts of things about his life in Greece. He told me that the parties there are great ha ha! I busted up laughing at one point when he was talking because Janet looked at me with a smile on her face, and in her thick English accent said ‘you can tell this guy is fond of the drink’ ha ha!
When we went through security they made Beryl and Janet take off of their jewelry and belts to go through the scanners. My two friends were very well dressed and it took them awhile to take off all of their accessories. When they cleared through the scanners, they just grabbed their things and walked up the ramp into the boat. Beryl got her shoes, belts, etc on pretty quickly, but Janet was having a time of it. The boat was rocking so she was having a hard time keeping her balance. Beryl and Janet were laughing so hard. Janet stopped dressing for a second and started looking for something in her purse; between gasping for air between her laughs Beryl told me ‘she’s lookin’ fo anotha tablet!’ Janet gets motion sick so she was fishing through her purse for another pill, ha ha! As Janet stood there hobbling around with one shoe on, two belts in her one hand, and a handful of jewelry in the other, bags in both, laughing to herself, another woman standing next to her starred at Janet. This woman’s face looked like it was saying “what is this lady doing!” Janet looked up and saw the lady, so she started talking her. She had a very thick accent and her laughter was very contagious, but this other woman wouldn’t crack a smile. It didn’t bother Janet, she was on a mission to get herself put together. She was cinching her belt on and the woman who was starring turned to her husband and started speaking in a different language. Beryl died laughing! Janet had been trying to have a conversation with a woman that didn’t speak any English; Beryl laughed out loud saying ‘that woman is a foreigner’. I had such a great time with them!
These two wonderful women loved life, they went on adventures together, and enjoyed the human experience. I asked them what their families at home thought of their adventures and they told me that their husbands, children, grandchildren thought that it was great. I totally agree.
The Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island was great I’ll have to write more about that experience in another post. When we were done with the islands we went uptown and ate at a great pizza place “Pie by the Pound”. We sat on a table that was on the sidewalk and I just looked down the street at all the tall buildings. Great food, a nice view, and good company.
My friends decided to go to the Museum for a little bit before they headed back to their hotel for the evening. The bulk of our time was spent at the island, so I said my good-byes and went home to finish my to-dos before it got too late.
The lesson that I was reminded of from my dear friends Beryl and Janet is the importance of having adventures and doing them now. I have been in the city for a few months now, and I’ve loved it, but I really haven’t done a lot of things that people come to New York for. I keep telling myself that I will get to them, but the days seem to slip by. I couldn’t help but think of my Utah friends’ situation; if I only had one day what would I do? I wonder how many of those days we have let slip by. The funny thing is that all of the “to-dos” that almost kept me from going all got done. I think that the “to-do” side of us worries that we won’t get things accomplished if we take time to feed the adventure part of our souls. I’m discovering that is not the case.
On a bigger scale: if you only had one life, what would you do? I’ve heard people say that we should live each day as if it were our last. I’m beginning to understand what that means. I don’t think it means that we should push off every responsibility we have and just go on adventures everyday (though that it is important to do sometimesJ); rather, I think it is saying that we make our everyday life an adventure. Take a different route to work, meet someone new, stop by the desk of the person you pass every day, really look at the flowers, breath, soak up the sun, walk, laugh out loud . . . live in the moment.
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2 comments:
Hi Cole! I love your advise about making time for adventure and enjoying every day! I'm really going to try and do better at that. I'm going to let my to do's go once in awhile and not them rule my days! Life is short and we need to do the important things!
Love, Lena
You are so right Lena!! Life is short and all to often we let our to-dos rule our days. It's fun when we put ourselves back in charge of our schedules, instead of our schedules being in charge of us :)
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