Bill's Musings

Beyond a doubt, the last year has been, well….tumultuous. We’ve had a lot of bad things happen to good people, and have had to dig deep as a family to enable ourselves to overcome some pretty bad odds. Yet we’ve managed to live through this and stay strong, focused, and true to ourselves.
Of course, having a good sense of humour is pretty important, especially in times of adversity. It’s probably what has saved us, my wife Anne and I. And it also helps to have such great kids like we do.
What I am getting at is that the last year has taught us to live your life as well as you can. By ‘well’, I don’t necessarily mean to spend unwisely and put yourself in a position of extreme debt. But if you’re hanging on to your money for a rainy day, and it’s been pouring out, I think then it’s time to open the purse a little and LIVE.
We have been fortunate enough, despite the family tragedy and turmoil, to be able to live like this. In our latest troubles, dealing with a stroke and having to attend almost daily to help in the recovery, my wife especially, there have been great sacrifices made by all. But, we decided early on that the best way to deal with this is to maintain our family unit ‘together time’, regardless of our schedule. It is quite literally the best decision we ever made.
You may be thinking that this is actually a no brainer, that everyone would do the same thing. Based on what we have seen in the last year, and meeting other people going through similar hardships, this is not the case. Often, you get so caught up in the moment, the difficulties, and the personal breakdown of your ‘normal’ life, that you just forget what normal is. You can easily lose sight of what is really important, which is to continue to nurture the relationships that will stay with you throughout pretty much whatever the Universe will throw at you.
My wife and I have been talking about getting a hot tub for several years now. Like over 10 years, at least. And we hadn’t really thought that this would change in the near future. But in light of all that has transpired, and with our age advancing faster than we realised, this year became the year. We have literally re-made out lives this year, taking back our beautiful back yard (we had neglected it for a couple of years, and it certainly showed), and taking control of all the other facets of life that ha been hanging by a thread.

For years, the only hot tub in our house was me. This has now changed. My wife and I are living ‘for better or worse’, and using hot-tub time to heal our physical and mental selves.

I’m not saying to rush out and buy a hot tub, although if you have been thinking about it, they are fantastic. But I do advocate looking at yourselves and rewarding yourself by living well, by not putting off things that you may possibly regret not doing before it’s too late, and enjoy the gifts of life as we were meant ot do. If you happen to live in a paradise such as Canada is, where we are not laden with the strife that so many other unfortunate regions of this world must endure, you owe it to yourself to appreciate it and even revel in it.

Live. Laugh. Love. And maybe have a soak as well.