Let’s Not Waste Another Day

Make the Best of the Ones Ahead

article by Cindy G. Foust

Happy April readers, coming to you this month with the good news that at least it’s not snowing. But we all did just about land in Kansas with Dorothy and Toto earlier this week, so there’s that. But that was kind of a misstep with the weather folks because the only thing we had at my house was a thunderclap and a 10-minute rain shower. But make no mistake about it, I had everything buttoned down in case the tornado would have come through. I have come to take this weather stuff really serious, with back to back hurricanes in the fall, snowcopolypse last month and then a tornado scare this week.

With this type of “weather climate” we seem to constantly face, it’s no wonder we all want to get in a spacesuit and like head to Mars… or the moon. Anywhere but here, right? And with this month’s magazine being the travel issue and all, it makes me want to write about my travel adventures. Or take new ones, at least. What about you, readers, anyone heading anywhere exciting for spring break? 

My neighboring best friends just headed out to Alaska for a mission trip which I think is very admirable except after the snowcopolypse, I’m kind of done with ice and snow for a while. I’m trying to even think of where I would want to go if I could go somewhere because I seem to have sort of crazy things happen to me when I do travel.

Like that time I traveled to Big Piney, Wyoming on a mission trip, to teach Bible School to this little church, 1,210 miles away. Yeah, about that… we prepared for 6 months and rode in a motorhome for 3 days to get there and 3 kids showed up on the first day of VBS. Kind of took the wind out of our sails, yes it did. 

But not more than it did than when someone’s Rottweiler got after us when we tried to go door-to-door in Big Piney to invite neighbors of the church to VBS. Yeah that was scary trying to get over the fence before the dog ate more than my homework. You know what I’m saying? 

Or what about the time Scott and I went to San Francisco and we got stuck in an elevator with 14 people? Listen folks, when the sign in the elevator says “Maximum Capacity 13 People,” I would implore you to take it seriously because as sophisticated as elevators are these days, that elevator knew the minute that 14th person stepped in and as soon as the doors shut, it dropped us between the floors. And we sat there for over an hour. With a lady from South Louisiana who had claustrophobia. And liked to use curse words. Like the big ones. And we had to have the fire department come rescue us with the Jaws of Life. Marriott did give us like 100,000 travel points for our “inconvenience” but honestly, I think we left points on the table because the Cajun lady cursed and ranted and spit all over us while we waited to be rescued. I mean, she acted like we all wanted to be trapped in the elevator with her mad, claustrophobic self and we were deliberately staying stuck between the floors as the elevator bounced up and down. Fun times.

Then another time my mom and I travelled to Washington to visit family, but while I was there, I had a tooth start to bother me. I have a very low tolerance for any type of pain medicine and after taking “one-half” of a pain pill, I stayed in a fog for three days. Like when we visited Mt. Vernon, my family just sat me on a bench while they toured the home of George Washington while I slept… and drooled. Actually, I slept and hallucinated for the better part of three days, waking up one night to what I thought was a man standing over me whose head was a chocolate covered cherry. This is after a half of a pill! So, it will suffice to say some of my travel adventures have been just that… adventures.

But where I really want to go, where my heart longs to travel to is Italy. I really think if I did one of those ancestry tests, the report would come back that I was half-Italian. We lived in Rome when I was a child while my dad worked in Africa, and the Italian citizens all thought I was in fact Italian. I mean, aren’t blonde haired, blue-eyed folks the absolute Italian? Doesn’t matter if I look the part or not, I know what my heart knows and the culture of Italy is where I long to be… you know, after COVID.

But here we all are, still just waiting to wake up from the place where this all started last year, and find ourselves on the next train out. I mean, that’s what we all want, right? To be able to get in our car or on a plane or in a bus and just go? Safely? Without fear? We’ve all been in the same trapped warp space for most of the past year and most of us have had plenty of time to think… to ponder…to question.

For me, one of the things that I am taking away from this unprecedented time (that’s the two nicest words I can think of to call it), is that I’ve spent all these years wanting to take  my children to Italy, but I’ve never planned the trip. I would consider this a rich experience but really, what makes up life’s rich experiences? Is it when we travel? When we spend time with the people we love? When we cook great food and have everyone come over to eat? Or perhaps when we just sit on the back porch and watch the birds? When asked, we would probably all have a different version for what creates memories that go through life with us, but the one that might be common for most of us is the regret that we didn’t stop and take the time to do something with our families and friends that we really wanted to do. 

I’m feeling rather melancholy this week, people I love are hurting and suffering through loss, so you know those feelings will invariably make their way to my column. If we’ve learned anything this past year, I hope that it’s not too late to take life for granted. I hope that we’ve learned to plan the trips with our children or our family and friends. I hope we’ve learned to marvel at bird watching (or donkey watching, whichever is your pleasure) in the quiet of your backyard. 

I hope we’ve learned to focus on the things that make us happy and positive and leave the minutiae at the door. Spring is definitely here and everything truly feels like it’s coming back to life, but in a different way than in years past. It’s like we are waking up from some Rip Van Winkle dream except the entire world is waking up with us.

Let’s not waste another day, another minute, of the time we have… plan those trips even if Italy is too far away from you. Pull your kids closer than ever before; make that time for your family and friends. You may find yourselves traveling no further than your back porch, but wherever your travels take you, wherever your destination stops, make the most of your time with the ones you love. We can’t get this year back, but we can make the best of the ones ahead.

Cindy G. Foust is a wife, mom, author and blogger. You can find her blog at the alphabetmom.com for weekly columns about home life,  parenting, small business stories and insight with a smidgen of literacy. Give her a like or follow on Facebook and Instagram.