Is it just by accident that while I “should” be preparing for all the activities of the days upcoming, I decide instead to revisit my long neglected website? At first it feels that way, but more often than not I’ve found that when I allow myself to travel down the rabbit hole, there is a reason why I ended up there in the first place.
Perhaps as summer nears and the day’s routine will cease to be routine, my mind is filled with “shoulds.” I “should” do this while I have a chance, I “should” get this thing done before the other thing starts. I “should” stick to my diet and exercise more. I “should” focus. I “should”, “should”, “should…” and before I know it, I have “should” all over myself.
“It’s not the destination; it’s the journey,” is sometimes attributed to Ralph Waldo Emerson (some claim this is erroneous). Though the meaning behind the quote, regardless of who first coined it, remains true words by which to live. We’re all going to the same place in the end. Yes, there’s differing views on the existence of an afterlife, but we all have to die first, and that is where life as we currently know it ends. So, knowing that we’ll end up in a box in the ground, or as ashes in an urn or scattered in the wind, or as a corpse educating students in a gross anatomy lab, we all have finite time to live the life we’re given, and there are more “shoulds” than three lifetimes can hold.
It’s hard not to get caught up in it all and end up “should-ing” all over yourself, but it’s worth it to wander from time to time. So, I know that I “should” edit this thoroughly before posting, but I am not going to because I know that I “should” get going in order to prepare for the rest of my day. Also, I think I “should” read more Ralph Waldo Emerson, and I “should” feel good about it when I do.